Life of Fred question

[bttrflyvld]

How many lessons does the publisher suggest to do a week?  How long will it take to work through 1 book? For the early elementary books Apples, butterflies etc.

Edited April 4, 2016 by bttrflyvld

[shawthorne44]

It really depends on how often you do it.  DD did it about once a week.   She hit weird problems.   Like she knew instantly that 0 + 7 = 7, 0 + 45 = 45.  But, 0 + 500 - "I don't know"  

 

We are now traumatized as a family because Butterflies was lost somewhere in the house.  I even sent out an email to the homeschool co-op offering to trade a new C through I as a hostage in order to borrow B, but I didn't have any takers.   Our homeschool co-op is more likely to do Abeka than things like Life of Fred

[coastalfam]

We use Life of Fred. That is a good question. I don't know what the author recommends. Each book has 19 chapters. If you did 2 chapters per week, starting in 1st grade, you would be doing long multiplication by the time you ended 2nd grade--which I think would be pretty ambitious for most kids. So I would say 1 or 2 chapters a week if you start in 1st grade, with plenty of practice reinforcing what is learned in fun, exciting, hands on ways. That is what we are doing. We did not start off that way. We started this year, my son's 2nd grade year, with Apples so we could get the whole story, and we blazed through the books until we reached Goldfish. In Goldfish the material was new (multiplication), and it was clear we could and should slow down. So now we are doing 2 chapters per week, and on days we don't do a chapter we do Rightstart Math games, Mathtacular Kit projects and DVD's, money math games, practice solving for area, review LOF concepts we've put onto flash cards, computer games, apps, etc. to reinforce and extend what we are learning in Fred. It seems to me to be working very well--my kids LOVE Fred, and they beg for math. I think we will get through Honey, and then maybe it will be good to have a summer break, and a chance to mature a little more before moving on to the next big steps in Fred. :)

[luuknam]

I don't recall the author recommending a specific number of chapters per week, but he does recommend rereading the books, so you don't end up with a 2nd grader doing multi-digit multiplication if the kid isn't ready for that. I don't remember his exact recommendations - I think reading 4 books and then rereading them (ABCDABCDEFGHEFGH), but you can do it however you want (he also recommends that when you finish A-M and your kid isn't in 5th grade yet, you redo all of A-M). You could do one book and reread it (AABBCC), or do ABABCDCD, or ABABCDABCDEF, etc. You can reread them as many times as you want/need.

 

In other words, I don't know, I'd suggest you just go with the flow - read as much as your kid wants, and then just reread when you seem to be getting ahead of yourselves.

[bttrflyvld]

some good suggestions.  I was thinking about getting them for next school year as a fun addition to our math.  I wish I could see a copy of one.  I may have to ask around my homeschool community. 

[luuknam]

some good suggestions.  I was thinking about getting them for next school year as a fun addition to our math.  I wish I could see a copy of one.  I may have to ask around my homeschool community. 

 

You can find sample pages for each of the books online.

[cmarango]

Depends on how quickly your child reads. My dd loves the Fred stories and read through all of Cats and Dogs today. Granted, the topics are way below her math level, but I think a chapter a day is definitely doable.

[luuknam]

Depends on how quickly your child reads. My dd loves the Fred stories and read through all of Cats and Dogs today. Granted, the topics are way below her math level, but I think a chapter a day is definitely doable.

 

The elementary books are supposed to be read aloud to the child. Fractions and onward are supposed to be read by the child itself. So, reading speed doesn't really matter. I'm currently going through 3 chapters of Apples a day with my 5yo, but he can add much bigger numbers than in the book, and count by 5s (and 3s, and...). I would've done Apples earlier with him, except I was doing so much Fred with my oldest, whose first home school year this is, that I was a little too burnt out on Fred to also do it with youngest. Oldest also likes to do 3 chapters per day (will sometimes pressure me to do more, but I often draw a line). But I'm sure it all varies per kid.

[cmarango]

I simply mentioned the reading speed because I wasn't sure which child the OP was planning on using Fred with. Her oldest daughter appears to be 8 and my daughter is also 8. Now, I realize that the beginning books are super simple, but she may want to start from the beginning.

[Sarah0000]

We do LoF with our regular read alouds, not as a math lesson. So we usually go through 1-2 chapters a day, 3-4 times a week, for maybe three weeks or so, before interest naturally wanes and the book falls to the bottom of the read aloud pile. Then a couple months later its discovered again and we're intensely interested and all "whatever happened to Fred that one time anyway?" again. Its looking like it will take one year to get through the first four books this way.

[nature girl]

We also have done Fred more as a read aloud, although we discuss (most of the) problems at the end of the chapters. We started Apples when DD was 5, and because the problems were simple and she liked them she could easily do 3-4 chapters. So we finished it quickly. After Apples we were like Sarah, DD wasn't as interested so we stalled a long time between chapters, maybe one a week just to keep them fresh on her mind. And now we're through Dogs, and taking a break until she's more ready for Edgewood. So the 4 books have taken us about a year and a half...but we've definitely gone exponentially slower, because of decreasing interest and (to a lesser extent) increasing difficulty.

[bttrflyvld]

I'm planning on using them for both my daughters (ages 6 & 8) next school year.

[Tanikit]

With my elder daughter, we started LOF when she had gone through Horizons K and Singapore 1a. She had a good understanding of Math and we did 4-5 chapters of LOF a week in the beginning. By Honey and Ice Cream we slowed down a little and now in the Intermediate Books I have had to stop for months and then press on very slowly. It all depends on your child. My youngest has started LOF Apples, but does not yet have the background that the eldest had when she started so we are taking it much slower.