Life of Fred

[Guest]

How do use Fred? Stand-alone? supplement?

 

I am sold on Chalkdust and Fred. How would one work them together? ie Basic math with what Fred books?

[SBP]

For my children, Fred will always be a supplement. My son usually does about one LoF lesson per week - sometimes two if he does one with DH on the weekend. We love LoF, but both of my children need to spend more time on math than Fred provides. My son, especially, seems to need LOTS of repetition before he internalizes a concept. We're using BJU 5 for our spine and then letting him put what he learns into practice using LoF. Next year, I'm leaning toward using Chalkdust and LoF, just as you are :). So much depends on the child, though. I can see how a child who is intuitive about math could do just fine using Fred alone. I didn't seem to get any children like that, though, so we'll continue to use something else as our spine and let LoF be our "fun math."

 

Best,

 

SBP

[Guest]

bump Thanks SBP

[Night Elf]

We started the Fractions book recently and my son is flying through it, as expected. He's doing 2 chapters per day along with 2 exercises in his Singapore Math. We plan on using LoF as a supplement only because my children also need more practice than LoF offers. I haven't seen the upper levels of LoF yet though. Right now, my plan is to have my children finish Singapore through 6B and make a decision from there. I hope we stick with the LoF books though. I own the first two and they are really cool.

[bettyandbob]

Last year we did LOF fractions and Horizons 6. This year we are doing LOF decimals and Videotext. We will probably get LOF algebra before the end of the year.

 

Last year dd did 1 lesson a week in LOF and 4 in Horizons. This year she does 3 Videotext and 2-4 LOF. I don't try to coordinate the lessons we just do the next lesson in each book.

 

dd really like LOF. I know it's meant to be a stand alone. The old teacher in me doesn't think it has enough practice for many students. However, LOF has been great at reinforcing skills. I really like that the presentation is quite different so the student has to generalize learning.

[G5052]

Math is one subject that we do year around, so it's going to serve as review after we complete a particular level with another curriculum. I showed my oldest the books and discussed this with him, and he was happy with that approach.

[Caroline4kids]

My sons are in Fractions ( 9 year old) and Decimals (11 year old). We go merrily along until they hit a concept that is hard for them and then I supplement until it is grounded.

 

What I have found with LOF is that is is really one big set of word problems, often with answers of previous problems needed in order to complete future problems. This can be frustrating as my oldest often makes little errors that affect the whole thing and he has to start over. According to my husband this is WONDERFUL because they have to be both careful and accurate all the time.

 

I have been orally reviewing things with the boys and this helps. I say things like, "How do you make a proper fraction improper?" "How do you divide a number by a decimal?" "How do you show a repeating decimal in a division problem?"

 

LOF tends to throw lots of operations at the student at the same time and they have to remember a lot of things at once. This is more like "real life" but can also be frustrating if the child can't remember what to do!

 

We just take it slow and I may even have them go through the book a second time quickly to make sure they get everything.

[Free Indeed]

My sons are in Fractions ( 9 year old) and Decimals (11 year old). We go merrily along until they hit a concept that is hard for them and then I supplement until it is grounded.

 

What I have found with LOF is that is is really one big set of word problems, often with answers of previous problems needed in order to complete future problems. This can be frustrating as my oldest often makes little errors that affect the whole thing and he has to start over. According to my husband this is WONDERFUL because they have to be both careful and accurate all the time.

 

I have been orally reviewing things with the boys and this helps. I say things like, "How do you make a proper fraction improper?" "How do you divide a number by a decimal?" "How do you show a repeating decimal in a division problem?"

 

LOF tends to throw lots of operations at the student at the same time and they have to remember a lot of things at once. This is more like "real life" but can also be frustrating if the child can't remember what to do!

 

We just take it slow and I may even have them go through the book a second time quickly to make sure they get everything.

 

Yep -what she said! It is our main program.

[Matryoshka]

I used LOF Fractions as a supplement last summer, and will do the same with Decimals next summer.

 

But I am thinking of using it stand-alone for Algebra (with the Home Companion, which I think at least doubles the practice sets), for my more verbal dd who gets it much better if there's a story and a reason to do the math. And if that goes well, sticking with it.

 

I'm thinking Foerster's for her twin sister, who wants to get to the math and enough with the story. Bonus - no competition, and I have the other book around for each to supplement from a different angle if they get stuck.

 

Of course, I have no idea how this will actually play out!

[Kimber]

My dd10 is using it as her main math program right now. She got stuck in decimals, so we're using Spectrum workbooks 6 and 7 for similar problems. Then it's back to Fred to complete Decimals.

 

I love Fred, and she's blossoming with the program. But it isn't perfect, and neither is my dd, :-). And because my daughter is somewhat young we're repeating pre-algebra with Dolciani's pre-algebra from the 60's. We plan to use Dolciani 1960's for algebra because it contains proofs. The pre-algebra introduces them so that will be helpful to us too.

 

I think if you want to use it for the main program, that'll work just fine. If you child gets stuck, a cheap workbook of extra problems may do the trick. It has worked for us.

 

Good Luck!