LOF timeline?

[Desert Strawberry]

Does anyone use LOF as their main math?

 

If so, how long does it take your elementary or prealgebra child to get through a book?

 

How many books do you go through in a year?

 

I mapped out my timeline. I found that it should take 3.6 weeks for my 2nd grader and 6.6 weeks for my 5th grader to finish their first books this year.

 

2nd grader *could* (be I can't imagine that he *will*) finish 6 books this year. I'd LOVE to see him do 4 or 5 this year, 5 or 6 next year, then the intermediate series in 4th grade, and on to Prealgebra series.

 

My 5th grader could, in theory (And likely would) finish all 4 prealgebra books this year. I'd rather spread it out over 2 years, then start the highschool series when he's 12, but we'll discuss it when we get there.

 

Does this sound reasonable?

 

Both kids are very bright and math oriented. Very fast learners and the oldest is highly motivated. I expect this program to work phenomenally for both. Of course, expectations can be wrong, but I'm usually pretty accurate in my predictions for my kids.

 

This sounds frightenly fast compared with the plodding speed we usually get through our work. Am I being overly ambitious? I keep reading how quickly kids work through this program.

 

FTR, I will supplement as need for math facts, extra practice, and with Khan Academy on a regular basis.

[Stellalarella]

Things slowed down for my dc when puberty hit. In order for LOF prealgebra and beyond books to work, the student must be highly motivated to read independently and be willing to struggle.

[SarahW]

How many lessons do they do per week?

 

I'm currently in Dogs with my kid. The first three went fast, since they were largely review. We've slowed down to only one chapter a day. I'm keeping mental notes of some lessons that I think we should revisit in the future (the chapter on primes, for example, my kid got confused boxes and cubes confused). So we'll probably circle back to some things along the way and slow down a bit more.

 

I haven't calculated where this will take us and when if we stick with it. I have BA rattling around in my brain, and my kid is young enough we might get some years out of it if we like it. That should slow us down if necessary.

 

I thought I was the only one using Fred as the main math program. So I'm afraid that not only am I of no help, there won't be too many btdt responses.

[Desert Strawberry]

4-5 lessons per week. One per day. Roughly 40 weeks in the school year.

it seems everyone I know url uses lot as a stand alone.

[pineapplehorse]

See my post here...http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/477990-whos-used-life-of-fred-middle-school-books-starting-with-fractions/?do=findComment&comment=5040536

 

My oldest (DS12) in PreAlgebra does 30 min per day. Sometimes that is one chapter, sometimes it is 3. My younger 2 (DS7 & DD9) do 2 chapters per day in the elementary series books.

[boscopup]

I think a chapter per day is a reasonable expectation. We sometimes did two chapters in the elementary series. I used it with a K'er who was using Singapore 1A/B. We did Fred in the afternoon with our other read-alouds.

 

My oldest has done Fractions and part of Decimals & Percents. When I had him spend 30 minutes on D&P ( after he'd finished Singapore 5B and still had over a month left in the school year), he would often do two chapters or a chapter and a bridge.

[Spetzi]

For us it varied quite a bit all the way up to Trig. There were chapters that took days and days and other chapters were a breeze. For example, DD had a blast doing Pre-Alg w/Bio, but got stuck on the economics of the second pre-alg book. Because of this I found it hard to plan more than a month in advance. As with most of my homeschool planning, I have a general idea of how much time things will take and what will come next, but there is always room for flexibility.

 

Enjoy Fred!