SereneHome Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 We have just started Singapore 1A and it seems to work for me and my son. But I keep reading a lot of good things about LOF and it also seems that some people do both. So I am curious as to why do both? What are the benefits? Any drawbacks? If you are using both, how do you schedule your week/month? Thank you!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 All of my kids use Life of Fred with another program. They enjoy the books and 2 of my kids are really into math. In fact, my oldest is starting to ask about possibly majoring in math in college. My 8 yro (who is a math nut) even has the LoF T-shirt and wrote the author a letter. It's not for everyone, though. The author is kinda eccentric and he's an artsy/right-brain-type (he has poems and artwork on his website). You can hear his personality in his writing. His opinions are everywhere in the stories. I don't mind buying his books, because I have 4 kids. The books are being read over..and over...and over...again. :tongue_smilie: If I only had one kid and another program was working well, I probably wouldn't buy the series. Benefits? I think the stories help the kids remember the math. The stories show how math is used in everyday life. It is very word problem-heavy (IMO). My son (who finished the elementary/intermediate series) is actually pretty good with measurements. He also knew about set theory stuff when my older daughter did not know what he was talking about. I like how the author tells them they have to memorize their multiplication facts in the elementary series. I am really impressed with the Prealgebra with Biology book. My 12 yro learned to balance chemical equations! It was awesome. She really enjoyed that book. Drawbacks? Yeah, it's not for everyone. It's not for someone who is looking for a traditional math program. It probably works well for kids who are really burned-out with math, math-phobic or really INTO math (like my daughters). Also, some of his ideas are 'out-there'. We've had to skip things when we felt like it. I've heard weird things about the economics book (that's actually next for my oldest daughter). I thought about skipping it and just moving onto algebra (she's working through AOPS pre algebra also, so it would be ok to move on). How to schedule? My youngest daughter is getting ready to start Singapore 1A and the LoF elementary series in January. I plan to do Singapore 3x a week and LoF of Fred 2-3x a week. The early books don't take long. You can read the story and answer the questions in about 10-15 minutes. I'm not sure how she's going to like the LoF books. She seems to be a Perfect Paula (so she might not even like the books). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted December 20, 2013 Author Share Posted December 20, 2013 Thank you!!! I have 3 kids. I think I might try it and see what happens. I think having Singapore and LoF will be a good combo of workbooks and just simple story-telling. I also hope that my DS2 will be listening in on stories and getting something out of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanikit Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 My DD(6) is doing LOF and Singapore - she really enjoys LOF and I will use it with my younger too. LOF doing only one chapter a day (or a week when I get to the higher level books) does not take very long so we can do a lesson of Singapore (or something else) on the same day. We have only got to Cats in LOF so things still take very little time, but will adjust as necessary if things get more complicated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco_Clark Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 We also combine LOF and Singapore. We do Singapore 3 days a week and LOF 2 days a week. I wouldn't trust it as an independent curriculum but Fred really inspires a love of Math. It's silly and fun and introducing a lot of concepts they would never be getting otherwise. We use it for our heavier LA days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a27mom Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 I use Singapore as my spine. I throw Fred in for fun once or twice a week, if we get to it. I also use Fred when we need a math break. When a concept is sinking in, or we are struggling with something and need to look at things differently for a week or so. We might just read Fred for a few days. My oldest loves math though. She moves through Singapore quickly, and then occasionally gets stuck, so Fred works well for us to regroup. My 4 y/o loves Fred too. The books are definitely reread-able. I am sure kids could get different things out of them each time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 Thank you ladies. What you described is exactly what I would like to do, so I think I am going to get LoF thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefragile7393 Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 I have done both. DS now does CLE Math 2, but we use Fred as a read-aloud and then he solves the problems. I don't think Fred would be good as a stand alone but some parents could probably make it work. Singapore math was nice.....but ultimately I found that CLE is the best fit for ds. I would say you could easily use both...it fits in really well with most math programs (LOF that is) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdobis Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 We are using MEP with LOF. My mathphobic daughter loves LOF. We switch off every other day between the two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fdrinca Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 We do both now, Singapore 4-5 times a week and Fred 1-2 times, depending on the weeks. It seems to work best when we read the story then go back over the concepts and expand them. If the kids didn't respond really well to Singapore, I'd consider using Fred as a stand-alone, with lots of hands-on projects that I'd develop. So, yeah, Singapore is working well enough :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyz Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 We really love and enjoy Life of Fred, however I would *never* use it as our only math curriculum (never). We use Singapore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 We used Fractions along with 4B, Decimals along with 5A/5B, then did a year of both LOF Pre-Algebra books and Key to Algebra before moving to AOPS Pre-Algebra. DD is reading and doing LOF Beginning algebra independently, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 We really love and enjoy Life of Fred, however I would *never* use it as our only math curriculum (never). We use Singapore. Have you only seen the elementary books? Those are much different than the higher level books. Also, starting with Fractions, he tells the kids that they're supposed to read and work through everything on their own (which can be a big learning curve for kids who are used to being spoon-fed the math). My 6th grader is at the end of the Prealgebra with Biology book and she learned a ton. She learned how to do unit conversions (like you learn in a beginning chem/physics class), how to balance chemical equations, how to solve simple equations with variables, moles and Avagadro's number, some review of fractions/percentages/exponents, word problems with percentages, how to do a Punnett Square, equations with cross-multiplying, pi... I was really impressed with the pre algebra book. Besides AOPS Prealgebra (which I'm also really impressed with), I think my daughter got more out of that book than anything we've ever done. Somewhere on his website, he has a page where he lists the topics his high school level books cover. I plan to buy his high school series for the kids to work through if they want. dmmetler: How is the beginning algebra going? I'm very curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 She's enjoying it, but at her own pace. Originally, I'd planned on doing it along with AOPS the way we did Pre-Algebra with key to Algebra, but she wanted it separate, and said she could do LOF on her own. It seems to go in spurts. Having said this, this IS the same kid who picked out "How to Ace Calculus" as her current real aloud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 She's enjoying it, but at her own pace. Originally, I'd planned on doing it along with AOPS the way we did Pre-Algebra with key to Algebra, but she wanted it separate, and said she could do LOF on her own. It seems to go in spurts. Having said this, this IS the same kid who picked out "How to Ace Calculus" as her current real aloud. Hey, that sounds like a GREAT read-aloud! :tongue_smilie: For us, trying to get through the AOPS textbook has been like wading through a muddy swamp. In the dark. With alligators circling us. I think we may have the world record of the longest time every spent working through that textbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 For us, trying to get through the AOPS textbook has been like wading through a muddy swamp. In the dark. With alligators circling us. I think we may have the world record of the longest time every spent working through that textbook. I don't know... We started in July and just finished up 3.7. :lol: The first two chapters went *really* slow. Chapter 3 is picking up nicely. I think Chapter 4 should go ok. I expect Chapter 5 to be a slow crawl again (which means hop over to Dolciani and get some drill-and-kill before doing the deeper stuff in AoPS). Thankfully, it's perfectly fine if we have to spend 2 years going through the book. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 We found the first two chapters slow, but 3-6 have been pretty easy going. I do think what made 5 relatively easy was that she'd done LOF first and had a lot of experience with linear equations, so she was just applying it to the AOPS type problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyz Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 Have you only seen the elementary books? Those are much different than the higher level books. Yes, but the OP is speaking of using Singapore 1A so I believe the elementary series is what she meant when she posed her question. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 Yes, but the OP is speaking of using Singapore 1A so I believe the elementary series is what she meant when she posed her question. :) Yeah, I really went off on a tangent (of course!). I think part of my point was that it really picks up in the later books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted December 26, 2013 Author Share Posted December 26, 2013 Yeah, I really went off on a tangent (of course!). I think part of my point was that it really picks up in the later books. I am glad you did :) I am bookmarking this in my head for later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macmama Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 I too would like to start my 6yr old with Singapore and LOF, but where would we begin in each program? She's had some Kumon workbooks but I've heard Singapore for 1st grade is much harder than the kindergarten one. Can anyone recommend what books I should get from both singapore and LOF that would compliment eachother as far as content? I'm okay with doing the kindergarten books since I have younger kids that we could try them with anyway... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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