Tell me about LOF - love it, hate it...please tell why

[sheryl]

Is LOF stand alone or a supplement? Do you like or dislike and why? Does your child student understand the program? Or, distracted by the cartoon. I've looked through the physical books and am yet to make a decision on them. Help!

[eclecticschooler]

We use it as a supplement to our math program. For us, it is great review and learning concepts a bit differently to really help get them cemented in the mind. I am big believer in teaching kids how to think. LOF has been great for us. I highly recommend it! We are using Pre-Alg with Econ and LOF Physics along with a regular Algebra program for my 13 yo. My 11 yo is using Pre-Alg with Biology. We normally do four lessons a week with LOF (each of them if we are doing multiple per child) and then slow down if comprehension is not happening.

[Laura Corin]

We used Fractions, and Decimals and Percents as supplements and these worked very well. We tried to use Algebra as a stand-alone and Calvin was completely lost. There's a lot of discovery and working out how to do things in the course. I'm sure this works well for some children, but Calvin needed something much more explicit. We went back to Galore Park maths.

 

Laura

[dbmamaz]

my very rigid teen found LOF algebra frustrating as a text but both pre-algebra/bio and beg. algebra enjoyable as a review. My very mathy and silly kid found LOF fractions and decimals fine as a text.

[Dmmetler]

We are using LoF Pre-algebra along with Key to Algebra. DD does well with the discovery in LOF, and the problem sets are short enough to not be overwhelming, and Key to Algebra's slower pace provides the review. I also do bring in the extra bridges spaced into the next chapters after she's passed a bridge, picking the ones that are actual math problems, not biology or Economics recall questions, because Key doesn't have many word problems, and Fred is basically All word problems. We used fractions and Decimals/Percents along with SM 3b to 5b. I wouldn't have called DD a "Mathy" kid until LOF-I think Fred taught her to love math, instead of just being reasonably good at it, and once she started to love it, she devoured other math books, and started finding math everywhere.

[Stellalarella]

We've used the first four elementary books (apples-Dogs), fractions, decimals, pre-algebra econ and biology, and beginning algebra.

 

i would only use them as a supplement; attempts at using them as a stand alone ended with us supplementing with traditional curriculums.

 

My children enjoy LOF very much. They enjoy the story. They enjoy the math. We enjoyed the Christian perspectice in the book. We were not offended by the story line in Dogs, which has been a sticking point for others. These are the only math books my teenage son has ever carried around to read to friends.

 

Money spent for the purpose of enjoying math is well spent, for us.

 

if one orders from the publisher, you can return the books for a refund if you are not satisfied.

[sheryl]

Thanks all! For the most part it seems most of you use it as a supplement. That's good to know. I'll stick with MUS for Algebra I this next school year. This is our 3rd math program...before MUS we used Saxon and BJU in that order. dmmetler, we too use Key To booklets for review. These are great. I really don't want to overwhelm her, but she does need to improve in her story problems. I didn't realize LOF was mostly story problems. We will stay with MUS b/c it's a good fit for her, but I just may add Key To Algebra AND LoF Algebra - just extracting problems from each and hopefully gain a well-rounded assortment of math problems. I appreciate everyone's input!

[SFM]

We use LoF as a supplement as well, my son asks for it -- even after math time is "up". He loves it. So, I plan to continue, we just read a chapter together and sometimes we do the work orally or written, just depends. We like it, he thinks it's great silliness. I like that it speaks to a lot of different math topics.

[SFM]

We use LoF as a supplement as well, my son asks for it -- even after math time is "up". He loves it. So, I plan to continue, we just read a chapter together and sometimes we do the work orally or written, just depends. We like it, he thinks it's great silliness. I like that it speaks to a lot of different math topics.

[North Coast School]

We read the books for younger kids (apples, dog, etc.) My kids think they are hilarious. I really don't know if they are getting much math from the whole thing, but we love Fred. He is just so weird and funny.

 

Supplement only here, but we don't read very much each week. Just a chapter here and there.

[Incognito]

Maybe the higher level books are different, but in the elementary series it really would not work well to just take problems out and use them separate from the storybook. You'd lose the context and you'd lose the fun. For the elementary series, I would not do that.

 

I understand you are using a higher level, but I imagine if the style is at all similar.

[Dmmetler]

Honestly, on LoF, you really won't have to just extract problems, except for maybe not doing all of every Bridge. The problem sets in the higher books are usually only 3 or so questions-and in the Pre-Algebra, usually at least one (sometimes all of them) are on the Biology or Economics, not the math. It's nice as far as actually figuring out what the question is asking and how to set it up (and in Pre-Algebra, setting it up algebraically-my DD has regularly solved them without using algebra, only to turn the page and have the author say "No, if you did this without setting it up as an equation, you did it wrong-you need to set this up algebraically, and here's why...."-I think Fred is doing a better job of encouraging the "write out every step" than any amount of fussing I do could be. Even the bridges, which equate to tests, are only 10 questions (but there are multiple sets given, which is why I pull those out.

 

I do think that Fred, MUS, and Key to Algebra would probably be too much repetition of specific topics without being selective. With Key to Algebra, I don't usually have DD do anywhere near all the problems. It's more like the first couple of pages of a section, and then the interesting problems after that point-however, as I said above, I do have her do all attempts at the bridges, only scattered through the next section of chapters once she's passed one bridge, because those problems are much more in depth and don't come out as nice and neat as the Key to Algebra problems.

[Mom22ns]

We use LoF to supplement MUS. I think they are a great combination. We do the LoF level during the summer after we finish the MUS level. I've done this with every book Fractions-Algebra. The two programs complement each other beautifully. MUS is strong on explanations but light on thought problems. LoF is all word/thought problems, but is light on explanation. Doing both really works here!

[momto2Cs]

LoF is our primary math. Dd is working through the Elementary series (she's on Cats), which is mainly review work for her although the author does introduce higher level concepts (set theory for example) that are new to her. She does a minimum of 2 lessons a day. Ds just finished Farming, and will be going on to Goldfish next week. I did back him up a bit because he was struggling with division in Fractions. He does usually 2 lessons a day, but I also have him keep a math journal, where he writes notes about formulas, draws diagrams, etc., so he is making himself a reference book.

 

Once in a while, I'll throw in a Math Mammoth worksheet or two since I own the entire Blue series, but for the most part, LoF is enough for us. Here's what I wrote about it on my blog...

 

One of our main resources these days is Life of Fred math, which I have written about before. We took a leap of faith, and decided to go with it as our primary math program. The kids love it--I never have a problem getting them to sit down for math, and they each listen to me reading the other child's book aloud. One of the things I have noticed lately, and that I very much appreciate, is that Stanley Schmidt, the author, introduces the kids to algebraic concepts right from the beginning. Dd has worked with set theory and simple variable equations, and yesterday Ds worked out a few problems with variable equations. These are examples from the Elementary set of books. I like this because I really believe that in introducing these concepts early on, the author is working to avoid the panic I know I felt when I got into algebra and was confronted with letters in my math equations! Part of me does worry, just a little, that in taking such a different approach to math, my kids might have issues later on, but I've done my research, and it really seems that kids that have used the upper levels are well versed in mathematics, so I do feel (mostly) that we are laying a good foundation. I was also worried in moving Ds back a few levels (at the author's suggestion until Ds is stronger with multiplication & division), as I thought this might put us "behind" in math. I thought about this some more, and at the rate he's going, two lessons per day, I should just stop worrying!

 

So, there's my two cents!