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Life of Fred Pre-Algebra
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Has anyone here used the Life of Fred pre-Algebra yet? I’m considering this for two very different kids – one who is math reluctant but would probably enjoy the story format, humor, and relational aspect of it; the other, strong in math and cannot stand repitition.
I will also have the Keys To. . .series on hand for supplementing, as needed. We have used these for review of decimals and fractions so far, and they do enjoy them.
We tried it this past year. It didn’t work for us. I found that my kids got too caught up in the story and missed the math.
I did loan it to a friend for her son thought and it worked great for him. He had tried a few different programs and was really struggling (he is definitely more gifted in the arts!). He has now been able to move on and is doing better.
You may want to check your library to see if you can check one out (or ILL). Our library has copies of all the Life of Fred books. That might give you a better idea.
-Rebecca
I currently have the Life of Fred Pre-Algebra on my wish list to purchase for my daughter’s next school year. She has completed Fractions and is almost done with Decimals and Percents. My good friend’s daughter completed Fractions, Decimals and Percents, and Pre-Algebra this last school year and found the Pre-Algebra to be a nice gentle introduction to Algebra. I did look at her Pre-Algebra book and was equally impressed with that book as I was with the titles we already own. The title is actually something like “Pre-Algebra – the Biology of Algebra” and is a review of arithmetic and introduction of algebra themed around biology topics. Before I ever purchased any of the Life of Fred books or recommended them for my friend to look into, I emailed Stan (the author of Life of Fred). He told me about his upcoming Pre-Algebra book and had some interesting comments about whether or not his books needed to be supplemented with other curriculum. Here is what he said:
You write of flying through, just to end up with the recommendation that we then move on to other curriculum (such as Saxon) This won’t be the case for several reasons: (1) Fred goes a lot farther than Saxon; (2) Saxon is light-weight, mathematically, when compared with Life of Fred. A couple of months ago I looked at his Alg 2 and compared it with Life of Fred: Advanced Algebra.
I counted a dozen major topics that he leaves out that Life of Fred: Advanced Algebra includes:
1. Permutations
2. Matrices
3. Linear programming
4. Series
5. Sigma notation
6. Sequences
7. Combinations
8. Pascal’s triangle
9. Math induction
10. Partial fractions—needed in calculus
11. Graphing in three dimensions
12. Change-of-base rule for logarithmsFinishing up the Life of Fred series will place your child at the junior level in mathematics at the university. If you want to pass CLEP exams, I know of no better curriculum than Fred. And besides, Fred is a lot more fun.
“Flying through” is not a bad thing. My daughter entered college at the age of 13 1/2. For the last 25 years her resumes have mentioned that.
All the best to you,
StanHope this helps your decision.
Angie
That is hilarious! I just ordered LOF pre-Al for my 7th grader. We absolutely LOVE Systematic Mathematics and so we are continuing with that, but my oldest needs more of a challenge (the SM has been so good that he progresses painlessly through the lessons). I could just have him do two lessons a day, but I wantecd to give him a different flavor of math to chew on instead of more of the same. The biology seems like a nice add-in too.
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