Life of Fred math

It is a total math program. I was a mite concerned about the short lessons, but my son is bringing me these long pages of work because the problems are short, but extensive. I compared the index to Saxon and it seems all there. Fractions and Decimals & Percents could be knocked off in one year. They are only about 45 lessons each, I think. My struggling 7th grader did the Fractions last year and will move to Decimals & Percents this year, as well as either completing the Algebra 1 or at least getting 1/2 way through. They say that Beginning Algebra is not necessary, so we’ll see. My 6th grader will do the first two books this year and then Algebra 1 in 7th grade. I will say, though, that it is ‘different’ enough that I am keeping my eye on their progress as compared to the tests in Saxon. After the first two books, it would seem like they should be able to test out on the Saxon 76.

My daughter did one year of public school last year and is back home this year (Praise the Lord).  She did Alg. 1 last year and so I was going to try the LOF geometry for her.  What do you all think?  Thank you for any advice in advance.

We used Life Of Fred (Fractions and Decimals and Percents) for the last half of last school year (for my daughter ~ age 11, grade 6).  We really enjoyed this math program and my daughter did well.  What I did notice was that more and more my daughter had an attitude with her math.  She didn’t hate math but rather was frustrated because she didn’t know how to do some of the problems.  There are only a few problems with each chapter and 10 questions on each bridge (test); however they are indeed difficult.  I think the theory behind the short amount of questions is that if you are able to show accurate knowledge on these questions, you obviously grasp the concept and can move on.  I like this theory which is why I can’t stand the look of the Saxon text books ~ way too much repetition and amount of problems for my liking.  However, I have discovered a problem with this theory.  According to Sonya’s explaination of a what makes a good math program, math needs to offer plenty of practice with a new skill so that the new skill becomes second nature (kind of like talking in a foreign language ~ if you don’t have enough practice listening and speaking ~ you’re not likely to be able to use the skills you’ve gained).  Life of Fred doesn’t offer enough practice with new skills to make it second nature ~ this was the frustration with my daughter.  The author would throw in a question from several chapters back and since she only answered 1 or maybe 2 questions with that skill it wasn’t remembered later and frustration set in ~ she often had to look in the index to find where a concept was first presented, go to that page, reread the chapter and then answer the question.  Life of Fred is indeed written to be a stand alone program; all of the concepts for each subject are in the books and the author explains things very well and is a delight to read.  But, I think Life of Fred just doesn’t offer enough practice problems (while Saxon is overkill)!  So, we will continue to have Life of Fred to supplement (most likely in Frebruary when boredom with schoolwork sets in ~ it will be like a breath of fresh air) and we are now going to switch to Math-U-See which is self-paced and offers a complete understanding of a concept with plenty of practice before moving on to new concepts.

Hope this helps!

Angie

I have been doing something similar to Gina with one of mine. She uses Math-U-See(MUS) and Life of Fred(LOF). She watches the MUS video, does the first two pages of the lesson, and one review page. She also reads one chapter in LOF and does the sample problems(your turn to play;4-10 problems). Every five chapters there is a bridge with five tries, ten problems each. If she passes the first try, she will do another try (for practice) as she reads the next chapter – so, four tries each with the next four chapters. If she does not pass her first try we will find out why and work on the concept missed. Usually understanding the concept is as simple as re-working through the chapter or a specific page. She will complete the second try and proceed as before. Some days she will work on one book, other days she will work on both. She spends 30-45 minutes per day on math. She loves LOF but was a little apprehensive about leaving MUS behind for algebra even though she has done LOF Fractions and LOF Decimals and Percentages. Recently she told me that she feels comfortable enough with LOF to use it as a stand alone curriculum for geometry next year.

I hope you find what will work for your daughter and you.

I know this is a really old post to bump! just wondering if one year later you were happy with LOF? if you felt you needed to suppliment? and if you are going to use it again. 🙂  thanks.

We have the LOF Elementary series (10 books) and my 5th grade math-hater is going through those before we move to LOF Fractions. She is enjoying them. I’m going to work on reading these to my K and 1st grader because I know they would enjoy them.

With that said, we use Math U See for our mainstay. It gives us a logical progression and mastery focus. I would not just use Life of Fred beyond 1st grade, but that’s me.