LoF, Rays, & math facts? 1st -4th

[Heidi]

So I'm just toying with the idea of doing math differently for my dd5 than what I've done with my older two, which is MM & xtramath. I love MM, they tolerate it and are learning tons, but somedays are rough. It definitely isn't fun.

 

So we had some funds that came in and on a whim I decided to buy Life of Fred elementary last night. :/. So now I'm thinking about how I can do math differently. I haven't seen them in person yet.

 

What is essential for 1st-4th grade? Could I do LoF, math facts from xtramath, and word problems from Rays? Play with money, clocks, and measurements? That would be so much more enjoyable than worksheets from MM. Then MM 5 and 6 in 5th and 6th grade maybe?

 

What would she be missing out on?

[forty-two]

I'm doing LoF elementary with dd7 - she loves her "Fred and Kingie" books :). It has plenty of clock work and a decent bit of gentle fact memorization (and adds in additional fact practice in Honey, but you could certainly do xtra math as your practice). I plan to add in SM CWP for well, more challenging word problems ;), and the Abacus Adventure app for mental math, which we are already doing. I think the LoF books are pretty complete and then some concept- and teaching-wise, but at some point in the elementary series he recommends adding in more practice than is just in the books, to cement things. He recommends informal practice inspired by real life, but you could be more formal than that. (I might try MotL's 5-a-day approach.)

 

My plan is to start Beast Academy 3A when we are done with LoF (whenever that is), and so far as I can see (looking at the BA 3A pretest), LoF elementary ought to cover everything, with the *possible* (not definite) exception of multi-step word problems, which is why I'm adding in CWP. Certainly both series are written by people who love math and love to play with math, and LoF mixes hard conceptual thinking problems with easier fact practice and computation problems, which will be good prep.

 

I have all the LoF elementary books, and I will try to scan over them to see if anything glaring is missing.

[forty-two]

What is essential for 1st-4th grade? Could I do LoF, math facts from xtramath, and word problems from Rays? Play with money, clocks, and measurements? That would be so much more enjoyable than worksheets from MM. Then MM 5 and 6 in 5th and 6th grade maybe?

 

What would she be missing out on?

I realized I didn't really answer the question :tongue_smilie:. With that combo - LoF, facts practice, Ray's, informal money/time/measuring - I don't think she'd be missing out on much, if anything. The experience of doing pages of math equations, maybe, but that may very well be a plus ;). LoF doesn't have as many problems as some programs (in LoF elementary the focus re: things to master is addition/subtraction and multiplication/division facts, along with multi-digit add/subtr, and the author recommends outside practice to solidify those things), but if you also do Ray's you'd definitely have plenty of problems. But LoF introduces a *ton* of additional math concepts, as well as lots of topics from outside math - you learn *so* much more than just math facts and add/subtr/mult/div :).

[Heidi]

Thanks forty-two! The more I read about it, the more excited I am. I'm really hoping my kids like it. I would love to have math become an enjoyable part of our day! I think it will be enough too. Just so many reviews on this forum saying it isn't enough was causing me to second guess myself.