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Any upper level Life of Fred users out there?
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Does any have any experience with Life of Fred in junior high and high school? I am considering it for my mathophobe 8th grader. He is behind by the worlds standard and the ability to get through a little quicker appeals to me. Also the quick lessons without intimidating worksheets. Is it enough in the upper levels? I have most of the series already, and not buying more this year is appealing. The story does seem a bit like twaddle though. What about transitioning to a “real” mathbook in college? I was thinking of adding one of SCMs Your Business Math for practice in basic operations as he concurrently works through LofF pre algebra series. Any thoughts?
My youngest daughter uses Life of Fred but she’s not at that age yet. Sorry I can’t speak to using it for junior high/high school. However, I can say that my 9yo daughter LOVES this math curriculum. She loves it so much, she is so excited when we finish a book so she can keep it. And then she reads them over and over.
Now, if I had asked my older daughter to do Life of Fred at the high school level, she probably would not have liked it because she would have probably felt the story aspect was for younger kids. I used MEP math with her.
So, I don’t know if your son will like it or not at that age level. I do believe they have samples on the website. I would suggest having him read through some samples to see if he likes it.
As I mentioned, I used MEP math with my oldest daughter in high school. My oldest daughter struggled with math in high school. We tried using Math-U-See and it just wasn’t working. I heard about MEP math and gave it a try and wow – what a huge difference. It worked so much better for her and she actually began to like math! So, here’s the link for that in case you’d like to check it out:
Different approaches work for different kids. For my oldest daughter, I found that it worked best for her to have a spiral math program…one where she got continual practice of previously learned concepts. One of things I would look at is if your son does better working on a concept over and over and then gets it down pat and can move on without needing a lot of review OR if he benefits from having continued review of previous learned concepts. If he seems to do better with the first option, I would look at mastery-based approach math programs. An example of a mastery-based program would be Math-U-See. If he seems to do better with the second option, I would look at spiral math programs. MEP is an example of a spiral math program.
Hope that’s helpful!
I have 2 junior high age kids and we do Fred as a family math. They love Fred and are determine to complete his set. So, we will see. They do not always get Fred’s Problems correct, but we discuss where they went wrong. I really like Fred because it shows how math comes up in everyday life. Now, some of his situations are forced, but they get the point that math is important to know.
My son has dyslexia and so he has a hard time being independent because of his reading issues, but he has used Teaching Textbooks independently very well. It has video and audio lectures for the daily concept and then also reads out each problem and if multiple answers, will read those out as well.
At this point, they make 90’s on their Teaching Textbook assignments and they do roughly about 20ish problems a day.
I’m using Fred for my 8th and 6th graders. The Fractions and Decimals books are more challenging and seem to have more practice than the elementary and intermediate books. My 8th grader is still working through Decimals since I made him start at the beginning of Fred at the end of 6th grade when they decided they didn’t like Teaching Textbooks. We did just start the SCM Business Math so that will be good practice. He is very good at math and my 6th grader struggles but they both like Fred. Sure the story is twaddle but it works for them so I will continue and just supplement when they get to a concept that they have difficulty with. They were in public school until last semester of 6th and 4th grades.
Jaime – my 8th grader will be about where yours is. He will be starting Fractions. And I was going to add in Your Business Math for extra practice. I figured he and his 6th grade sister can have competing pet stores. We have done MUS mostly in the past and we have gotten through it, but I am starting to feel working on the same operation all year just causes him to zone out and make mistakes. I think variety may suit him, as well as a little more interaction with me. I was getting a little lazy letting the dvds teach the lessons. It is good to know the books get a little more challenging as they progress.
Thanks for he input everyone!
Crystal, both my kids are working on the pet store as well. My 8th grader will have an easier time than his sister since she struggles with math and is still on Jelly Beans with Fred. I have to walk her through how to calculate everything but SCM also does this as well. I think it will be good real life practice for both of them.
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