Math help please!!!

Why not just start with Fred from the beginning and do the whole elementary series? I’m sure he would get through them pretty quickly. This would probably give him a good foundation for math. My kids, who were not at all behind in math, found Fred Fractions to be quite a challenge because the author does not teach directly. You have to think things through, make inferences, and figure out how things work. This is not easy to begin. In retrospect, I think it would have been beneficial to have them work through the elementary series when it came out. They are having a much smoother experience with Decimals now that they have acclimated to his teaching style.

I was going to ask the same, is it just memorizing or does he not understand the concepts.

Growing up I never really memorized the facts, as hard as I tried, but I understood the concepts and while maybe not the fastest, I did math really well. I hope the kids can memorize, at least some, because it will make it faster but my bigger goal is to have them understand the concepts. We are doing MUS and I can tell that the concepts make sense as well as they are memorizing jath facts all at the same time.

I would be surprised if he found the LOF books too easy, even starting from the beginning.  Yes, there will obviously be some review, but the books have so much more than just math in them.  I have 3 doing LOF now, and even the ones who really grumbled about math in the past are enjoying it.  When I switched them, I told them that yes, there would be some review, but there would be some new stuff too — and there was.  The author introduces all kinds of math concepts you won’t find in any other elementary math curriculum, and does it in a way that engages the child.  We’ve found it to be challenging (in a good way), but not overwhelming.   –Tara

We were in a similar situation, except my son was in 6th.  Although he exceeded state and national standards on every single standarized test and achievement test, he had not passed but one math test (on fractions, no less) since third grade. 

My son has APD -Integration Deficit and SPD in Auditory and Visual Discrimination so we are using Dianne Craft’s methods.  We started with skill-specific books.  We have had great success with the Kumon books.  So, for instance, my son had great difficulty with subtraction with regrouping.  We started with Kumon’s Grade 2 Subtraction and then moved on to Grade 3 Addition and Subtraction.  My son worked through the Subtraction books and is now finishing up with the last Multiplication book.  We will then do Division (2 books), Fractions (4, including a Focus book on reducing fractions), Geometry and Measurement, and Word Problems. 

My goal is to have my son complete all skill-specific books, do as much Hands-On Equations as time permits and then move into MUS Pre-Algebra for 8th grade.  We will probably use some of the Keys to… books for things like Metric Measurement.

You may want to check out Dianne’s site at http://www.diannecraft.org/ .  I am not sure if your son is a right-brain learner, but even if not, he may benefit from some of her right-brain strategies.  There is a free article/plan on Math Strategies under the Lesson Plans tab.

I do want to note that the Kumon books provide no instruction.  My son didn’t really need instruction, just practice and reinforcement at his own pace (this was critical for him).  He has manipulatives available for use, but rarely uses them anymore.

HTH.

Stephanie

At the recommendation of the Life of Fred people, I bought the Ice Cream and Jelly Beans books before moving into the intermediate books, then fractions.  My son is currently in lesson 27 of MUS DELTA at the end of his 6th grade year.  His brother (3rd grade) is half a lesson ahead of him in the same book.  I am hoping switching him to Fred will give him more interest in math and eliminate the competition with his brother.  

I have read part of Ice Cream and see how challenging it is. It’s amazing what they are introducing to children in 4th grade.  It’s much fun, though! Your son would certainly be stretched and challenged.  i am glad we didn’t just jump to Fractions.  We will make our way through these two books together, then hopefully he will complete the intermediate books on his own through the fall and move into fractions in January.  We would love to have the rest of the elementary series and have suggested to the in-laws that they would make a great gift.  Unfortunately they are not in my budget.  

Whether or not you need to supplement will likely depend on the student.  It’s pretty easy to download a work page or two from a free website, or let him play a game on an educational website or a card or board game that will help reinforce facts.

I’m in the same boat with a few differences. I pulled kids in March but my kids are 7 & 8. My 8 year old barely know double digit math addition & my 7 year old only single digit add & subtract with out carrying or borrowing. So, I went online and found that each publisher has their own placement tests, so I gave each child mutiple ones to get a better idea of what they could & couldn’t do. I then gave them time to deschool and I started to take concepts they couldn’t do and apply to real life situations to see if they knew the whys so to speak, but just didn’t get the numbers on the page. For instance, I ordered a half dozen cookies at chik fil a & each of us had one and my 8 year old asked for another. I told her she could have one if she could tell me how many cookies were left in the bag. Without missing a beat, she did all the calculations. dozen = 12 half dozen or 1/2 of 12 =6   6-3=3 like in 2 seconds!!But if I had asked her what half of 12 was she would have a blank stare on her face. So while out & about I would just pose different questions and was very impressed that my kids could figure it out more times than not. I am currently having my daughter memorize her multiplication tables even though she doesn’t know the concept that way when we get to learning the concept, it will go smoother. She memorizes things well. She got the 0, 1, 2 & 10’s quick and I spend a week for each other one. So last week we learned her 3’s  I use flashcards and I time her reviewing all the ones she has mastered, for every day she increases her time, she gets 15 minutes of electronic time to use as she wishes. I then have her copy the 3’s times table 3 times a day. The 3 uses a colored marker she picked yellow and for the other number she used blue and the answer she wrote in green. I don’t know why this helps her memorize, but it does. Once she has them written then I do a verbal review quickly & we both can see see which ones she has done and which ones are still not memorized. I mark them with a purple dot and day two she writes them all once but the ones in purple she writes 5 times. and continue on by weeks end she knows them and then the next week they go in the flashcards for daily review and we start on the next # she chooses to learn, 4 or 9 or 7 whatever. She likes getting to choose it. Now because I have two that still need addition review…. I set up a contest between the two and the winner gets to pick which chore is theirs for that day. So we all win that way!! She is coming right along in memorization and isn’t as nervous about learning the concept. I also found that when I bought a small lap size white board & markers, they aren’t as grumpy about workig out problems. I used to sub in the public school and this works for older kids too. Best of Luck!!

Also, as far as math processes go, like subtraction with regrouping- we used personal-sized white boards.  One of Dianne’s recommendations is to model the process (on the white board) for the child until they practically pull it away from you to do it themselves.  This has worked well with subtraction.  I plan to use the same modeling plan (to infinity, if necessary) with 3 and 4 digit multiplication and, especially, long division.