Life of Fred?

[mama2cntrykids]

I know many ppl love this program, but I was wondering, how much review does it have for each concept?

 

We're using CLE right now and my 6th grade ds is only in book 507. Even with that, he struggles. I don't want to jump ship, but I need something that will work for him. I feel like I am failing him in math. It's awful.

 

So, LoF looks interesting (and fun...which he needs as he HATES math now), but he really needs REVIEW too.

 

Suggestions?

[Erica in OR]

In our experience, not a whole lot of review in the middle school books. We went through Fractions, Decimals & Percents, and are now going through pre-algebra. Not a whole lot of practice problems either. It helps to make math fun with the humorous literature, but if he struggles and particularly if he gets frustrated with not being able to solve problems, I wouldn't recommend it as a spine. Maybe as a supplement to help him see that he doesn't necessarily have to hate everything connected with math?

 

Erica in OR

[acsnmama]

I'm not sure if most people you LOF as their main math curriculum, I'm sure the do, however, a long time ago I looked at the website for 2.5 seconds and clicked it off, never intending on looking at it again!

 

A few days ago, I took another look and decided to view the samples, and I'm going to likely order LOF tonight to give it a try! We will be using it on the side for fun, rather than as our main math curriculum.

[km123175]

I had a math phobic daughter and I used LOF to help her her over the hump and fear of math. There is not much review at all - beyond the fact that the problems "your turn to play" bring concepts and ideas from material from previous chapters and books back into play. This can be frustrating for my daughter if she hasn't seen it for ages. I just try to remind her what about the topic or what Fred was doing wehn it was introduced and she can usually remember.

 

if you have a child that needs lots of reveiw using LOF alone would not work. We use LOF and MM. This seems to work well for us because LOF incorporates many advanced topics in easy to unerstand ways (functions for example) and encourages mathematical thinking. MM gives us "time on task" and practice with basic facts. I schedule MM on some days and LOF on other days, and some days she has the choice of which to do. Which she chooses varies based on her mood that day - whereas she used to only choose LOF because it was less stressful than a workbook page. So, to me it's has served it's purpose well because she is now willing, abily and happy to do her workbook pages for practice and play with Fred at other times.

 

HTH,

 

Kimberly Hale

[NittanyJen]

The entire program is loaded with review, just in the way that it is designed; it just doesn't have pages labeled "review." If you start in Fractions, then move on to Decimals and Percents, the D&P book will constantly use what they learned in Fractions. A few of the Bridge questions that test knowledge at the end of each section will even ask questions that require recall and use of things taught earlier in the series.

 

Then if you move through the Pre-Algebra books, those books continuously use problems involving Fractions, Decimals, and Percents. You simply cannot solve the problems asked of you without using the skills you have already acquired, hence the built in review; you will be constantly using fractions, decimals, and percents (and other related skills learned in the first three books, such as introductory geometry and some measures).

 

When you get to Beginning Algebra . . . well, you cannot really do algebra without continuously using fractions, and all of the stuff you learned about fractions (reducing, factoring, common denominators . . . ). Relating fractions to decimal equivalents and computing in decimals is also in constant use, so a separate review is not really needed-- you are already using it and doing it with each lesson; the "review" is that you see the stuff in the problems you work every single day. If you are using factoring and finding the LCM and GCF to solve problems daily, you probably won't need to go back to review it as a special topic all by itself.

 

I went through and counted once-- the Fractions book is the smallest book in the upper series, and for a one topic book, it alone has over 700 problems. The remaining books get progressively larger (and Beginning Algebra has optional Home Companion and Zillions of Problems books with additional problems).

 

It is still an unusual series, with a set up that looks very different from the math we grew up with, but it's working great for us as a standalone. It is teaching DS12 more than just math though-- he is learning (sometimes the hard way) the difference between just reading a text and *really reading* a text for information. He's learning that the "Yup, okay, I got that!" method of reading will not always cut it, and sometimes he has to actually go back and question what he is reading. When he does that and takes his time, he finds he gets it quite well and is very successful. When he tries to rush it, it catches up with him and he knows he has to go back and read it again, a phenomenon he is not accustomed to having to do!!

 

I'm pretty glad he's learning that at home at age 12 instead of at 18 as a college freshman :)