Name: Spreading the Feast Gathering
Start: 2025-07-11T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-07-12T23:59:59-05:00
Location: LaGrange, KY

Tagged: Life of Fred, math, Miquon

This topic has 25 replies, 19 voices, and was last updated 13 years ago by mrsmccardell.

Viewing 11 posts - 16 through 26 (of 26 total)

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May 12, 2012 at 11:57 am
nebby
Participant
I find that my older son can learn the concepts from LOF but my dd needs more explanation. I got the new elementary series for my younger two and they love it. They always ask to do more. I am not sure yet that I am comfortable with it being our only math. I would want to supplement it with more practice.
Nebby
http://www.lettersfromnebby.wordpress.com
May 12, 2012 at 8:12 pm
pslively
Participant
I have tried several different math approaches in my last 14 years of homeschooling… Saxon, Singapore, Horizons, Abeka… I have never seen anything as good as the combo I am using now, which is Life of Fred along with Miquon. My daughter is turning 6 this week and has just been through her first year of doing formal “schoolwork” and I am so impressed with what she has learned. She is doing addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, telling time, ordinal vs. cardinal numbers, understands the concept of infinity, knows what perpendicular means, can write a set correctly and understands what it means, and on and on and on. No, she cannot rattle off a times table yet or even an addition table for that matter, and I’m not sure that she could just grab a Horizons math book and start filling out pages… but I can see that she truly *thinks* math and understands it. My older kids can tell me what 2×8 is because they have memorized it. This one looks at 2×8 and says, “so that’s two eights, right?” And then she adds 8 and 8 on her fingers. That may not sounds really impressive to you, but it is to me as I have seen all four of my older kids struggle to think mathematically and to really understand what they are doing. I really think that this is all because of having the verbal explanations from LOF along with the hands on manipulation of Miquon. So, all of that is just meant as my wholehearted endorsement for FRED, but use it along with something hands-on and concrete.
May 12, 2012 at 8:55 pm
binky
Participant
pslively, Thank you for that info on life of fred. I have just ordered it for all of my children. My younger ones will start with Apples with me reading through it with them. My 12 year old son did Saxon last year, TT this year and we will start LOF this summer. Please tell me how Miquon works. I looked at it and Singapore years ago for my oldest children but I didn’t know if I could teach it or not. Is Miquon something I could use with my 12 year old or do you need to start it young.I had really planned on using Fred as a stand alone Math for my kids. This is only my second year HS so I am still trying to figure it all out. Thanks
May 12, 2012 at 11:58 pm
pslively
Participant
hi binky, I only have time for a real quick reply so I can’t give you as much detail as I’d like to right now. There are samples of Miquon on currclick.com that you can look at. It is all done using cuisenaire rods. It is intended for 1st -3rd grade. However, I will be having all of my children go through the books this summer as soon as we finish our SCM pet shop math course. They will balk at it, I am sure, saying that it’s way too easy. And it is too easy for them. But I think it’s important for them to do it so that they can *see* the math, if you know what I mean. When I got the first miquon book, I didn’t know what to do with it. I had to order the “Lab Sheet Annotations” book. This has instructions for each page in all six miquon books. After about 2 weeks, I had the hang of it and haven’t looked at the book since. I do think that I would have just pushed it aside in the beginning if I hadn’t order the Annotations book. I got my copy of that on Amazon for about $3. All of the miquon books are available on currclick, so I’ll buy them from there so that I can print a copy of each for my older kids. Please let me know if I can answer any specific questions for you. Oh, forgot to say that you also need the little plastic thing that the Cuisenaire rods slide into. It looks like a ruler with a slot down the middle of it. I can’t think of the specific name for it right now.
May 13, 2012 at 2:48 am
binky
Participant
I actually have the Lab Annotations book. I bought it in 2001. I don’t know if it would still be current and I think I have the red book. How would you say Miquon compared to MUS?
May 13, 2012 at 1:19 pm
pslively
Participant
I have never used Math u See. Sorry.

May 15, 2012 at 1:33 pm
mrsmccardell
Participant
I purchased LOF and was hoping to combine it with MUS. I don’t own MUS yet. I was wondering how you combine a “story” like LOF with a non-story. For example, if MUS is teaching a series and it doesn’t coordinate with chapter 1 in LOF, do the children understand the story of LOF if they are starting it in chapter 3? Or my question is how do you combine 2 different curr. if they don’t have the same sequence? Esp if 1 is a story line. Does that make sense?
May 15, 2012 at 3:17 pm
crazy4boys
Participant
We use RightStart with Life of Fred. I use them completely separately. We do our regular RS lessons M-Th. On Friday we do LoF as “living math” and then later in the afternoon they do another RS lesson. For us, LoF is a fun supplement, not a fit it in the exact place we are in our other math program. One of my older boys is working through the elementary series on his own. He does one lesson a day, along with his RS lessons. He considers LoF fun and not extra work.
May 15, 2012 at 3:43 pm
SueinMN
Participant
My dd has always struggled with Math. We’ve tried them all. We did like LOF for a while but in Algebra she needed more. Now we are using ALEKS which is an online Math program. It is wonderful, we love it. I wish we had tried it before. It tests the student to see what she knows and proceeds from there. It has assessments built in and if you forgot something you get it back again. Christy has only worked on it for two months but she is halfway through their Algebra 1 now. She will keep doing it over the summer so she doesn’t lose what she has gained.I like that I have to do absolutely nothing with Math now other than pay for it.
May 15, 2012 at 4:17 pm
missceegee
Participant
We are LOVING LOF! DD11 uses it in combination with Strayer Upton Practical Arithmetic and DS8 uses it in combination with Math Mammoth. I’m not sure I’d use it on it’s own, but it’s been a FANTASTIC addition for us.
May 15, 2012 at 7:48 pm
mrsmccardell
Participant
missceegee – Do you read the LOF from the start or do you try to coordinate the chapters with Math Mammoth/Strayer Upton?