MUS to Life of Fred

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  • September 23, 2010 at 2:37 am
    Nina
    Participant

    I think my boys will really enjoy Life of Fred. Right now we are using MUS. I am wondering when to transition. Is anyone familiar with these programs enough to help me? TIA!!

    September 30, 2010 at 4:03 pm
    jeaninpa
    Participant

    I’ve been going through the old posts because I have the same question.  I’m thinking about switching from MUS to Life of Fred.  Can anyone answer this one?  Thanks,

    Jean

     

    September 30, 2010 at 5:05 pm
    CindyS
    Participant

    I am not familiar with MUS, but  I can tell you where we split from Saxon and maybe you can equate it to MUS. One son finish Saxon 65 in 5th grade. He is now doing LoF Fractions in 6th, and will likely be able to complete the next book, Decimals & Percents, this year also. He is doing well; neither overly or under challenged.

    My next one up got about 1/2 way through the Saxon 76 in his 7th grade year before he just stalled. He zinged right through the Fractions book and is now doing the Decimals/Percents. His book is also a pretty good fit. He may start Beginning Algebra this year as well, because I read that the Pre-Algebra books are not really necessary. My plan is to test my him on the Saxon Algebra 1/2 as we go along here because we already own it. That will give some indication as to how to proceed since this course is fairly new and I feel like we’re experimenting.

    Blessings,

    Cindy

    October 1, 2010 at 7:53 pm
    MamaWebb
    Participant

    Oh how i wanted fred to work!  My daughter switched from MUS Epsilon (fractions) did Fred for fractions as a review and just moved into Fred’s decimals and percents.  So far, we are finding HUGE gaps in her understanding.  I am finding that my daughter just wants to do what she’s told, get the right answer, move on.  She doesn’t really care about application or use or the “why” of it.  I am heartbroken, because I am just now realizing how much I’ve let slide by not monitoring her better.  For Epsilon and Fred’s Fractions, I let her check her own work, and come to me if there was a problem.  Ugh, now I feel terrible.  I have LOVED the ease of use of MUS, but my kids were getting bored to tears using the same concept 425million times before they moved to a new concept (I get it, mastery vs. spiral).  My daughter also was a little frustrated at Mr. Demme’s often unusual ways of teaching certain concepts that created extra steps (but created understanding, IMHO).  So we switched to Math Mammoth for my son, who would’ve gone into Gamma this year.  We tried Fred for my oldest daughter.  But now we’re stuck.  She doesn’t want to go back to MUS – which she could pick up Zeta and move on no problem, but she doesn’t want to.  SHe wants to go back and do parts of Math Mammoth’s 5th and 6th grade curricula (even though she’s a 7th grader), in order to bring her skills up to speed.  The switch from MUS to Math Mammoth has been good for my son (who demonstrates some significant ADD tendencies), and I just choose the problems he is to complete.  So I might just move that direction for my daughter, who is very smart, but alas, I have inadvertently trained her in laziness instead of diligence, b/c I have not overseen it as I should have.  

    Bottom Line:  Fred is amusing, teaches a lot, but often requires a jump in thought that not all students are always successful in making, but there just isn’t enough chance to practice the problems, and I feel, a bit more explanation is needed.  I am ALL FOR not practicing the same type of problems a hundred times.  But I think my kids need a FEW more than are given.  ALso, I think having the answers directly following the “Your Turn to PLay” practice exercises is just too tempting for most of us non-math heads.  The biggest issue for me with Fred is that my daughter has had no problems in completing the problems given in the book.  But when she was faced with a different application of those same skills, she was unable to apply what she should know about that concept to a different situation.  I’m just not sure that this was the right fit for my daughter.  And oh, how we wanted it to work!

    If anyone is interested in the very affordable Math Mammoth, we have liked it.  The only drawback I find with Math Mammoth is that the explanations could be a little more in depth.  I sometimes have to ask my Math-head husband to help me explain it better to my son.  But it teaches EXCELLENT mental math and real-life application strategies.

    HTH!

    Amy Webb

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