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Life of Fred sale
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Just an FYI and wanted to pass this along, Educents has the intermediate collection of Life of Fred on sale.
I am also curious for those of you that use LOF do you suplement with other items?
I use Life of Fred elementary as a supplement for my son going into 5th grade. We were using RightStart with xtramath.org and switched to CLE Sunrise later in the school year for 4th. He enjoyed learning with LoF but needed more practice problems and fact drill at the elementary level. We plan to keep using the LoF series in the upper levels and if there are enough practice problems then, I doubt if we would supplement.
We use LOF for all of our kids, grades 6-11. We don’t supplement. I have in the past used worksheets to work on skills because I was afraid what they were doing wasn’t “enough,” but it really wasn’t necessary. If you use the program the way the author recommends, it does fine. I know not everyone agrees with that opinion, but that has been our experience.
And every child is different. My son struggles in math and needed the extra. He is doing good with it now.
Yes, that’s true! I wasn’t referring specifically to you, Wings2fly, in my comment. I’ve heard the opinion from a number of people that more is needed, and so I don’t discount it. Moms know their own children. I was just saying what our experience was. I really like the curriculum. 🙂
Yes, I understand jotawatt. No offense was taken. I just wanted to point out that some may need more practice and some may not. I think with any program you use, hands-on manipulatives are important to laying a strong math foundation in the very beginning. We have been happy incorporating LoF into our math. But my oldest is finishing grade 4 and I have no experience with LoF beyond the elementary level. I have heard that upper levels have more practice problems. LoF stories make math fun and kids can see where they can use math in real life. And I love the many other things being taught at the same time.
Regarding if a math supplement is needed with Life of Fred, I think math games and xtramath.com or other facts drill are helpful, based on the following.
Here is what the lifeoffredmath.com site says about the elementary series:
http://lifeoffredmath.com/lof2.php
Life of Fred Elementary does not spend a lot of time teaching the basic math facts. Dr. Schmidt believes the basic math facts can be taught in an informal way using games and flashcards. If you are someone who needs a more structured approach to teaching the basic fact while not getting the student bogged down with page after page of the boring, repetitive questions, check out Professor B Mathematics Level 1 and 2. We (JOY Center of Learning) personally recommend Professor B Mathematics Levels 1 and 2 for teaching the math skills needed before starting the Life of Fred Pre-Algebra series or along with the Elementary Series. Click here for more information about Professor B Math. (opens in a new window). The Life of Fred Math Elementary books are a complete program. Some people find their students simply need a little more formal instruction on how addition and subtraction works rather than just memorizing the facts by rote.
If you have completed the Life of Fred Elementary and Intermediate Series or you know: i) the addition tables (What’s 5 + 8?)ii) the subtraction tables (What’s 8 – 5?)iii) the multiplication tables (What’s 7 times 8?)iv) long division (What’s 6231 divided by 93?)
and are 10 years of age or older…
…you are ready to start Life of Fred Fractions, the first book in the series. This book goes far beyond basic fractions so you probably do need it even if you have already learned a bit about basic fractions.
After completing Life of Fred Fractions, go on to the Decimals and Percents Book. Again, this book teaches much more than decimals and percents! Follow along the recommended order for completion and before you know it, you will be inviting Fred as a guest to your dinner table conversations.
NOTE: If your student has finished all of the Elementary books but is not old enough for 5th Grade, we recommend that you go through the Elementary books again. Like any good book, you learn more the second (or third) time through. While most students are not mentally mature enough to handle the Life of Fred Fractions book until they are old enough for 5th grade, there are exceptions to every rule. If your child is ready, do not feel you must hold them back. On the other hand, they will not be behind if you wait until they are 10 before starting the Life of Fred Pre-Algebra series.
If you are starting with a younger student (1st or 2nd grader), we recommend going through three or four books together with the child and then having them go back through the same three or four books on their own. This will give them the necessary review they need to learn the math and will also stretch the program out for you. Then, when they are in 4th grade, have them go through all 10 Elementary books and the 3 Intermediate in one year as final preparation before starting Life of Fred Fractions.
Dr Schmidt is awesome. If you have specific questions on how to use the program w/a child you can actually call or e-mail him (his info are on the website). It has been very helpful for me w/one child in particular who was stuck. We went back a few books, as suggested and he is now doing much better.
I use LOF exclusively with my 10 year old dd. She is 1/ way through Mineshaft. We started at the beginning of the year, as the program suggests if the student is in 4th grade or below and new to LOF) with Apples. We had been using Making Math Meaningful, another mastery program. And although I do like MMM myself, dd cried almost every day over her math lessons. We stopped, took a deep breath, did other things, came back to MMM, and still had tears…so we switched to LOF and it has been a night-and-day difference in her enthusiasm for math. She looks forward to the lesson each day. There isn’t a lot of drill work, which is the author’s intent. There often is what he calls an extra “row of practice” to build some arithmetic muscle and at one point (the H book) the child makes her own “honey cards” or flash cards to drill multiplication facts. We had an enjoyable year. She just had her end-of-year testing in math and she scored very well (1.5 years above grade level) in math. I don’t put too much stock in these kinds of numbers, but the general impression is that we are on the right track, making progress, and we are doing so joyfully. I’ll take it! 😉
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