Could someone please describe "Life of Fred"?

[Kelley]

how is it used? Is is purely supplemental?

Thanks!
Kelley

[danielle]

Why don't you try a search of the boards. This has been thoroughly discussed. Samples are also available on the LOF website. Good luck, it's a great program.
Danielle

[Kelley]

I will search the boards after the kiddos go to sleep.
thanks for the hint.;)
Kelley

[mommaduck]

Seriously, call the author! He's a real treat to talk with! The books are storybased, with problems, humour, and practice (but not so much that your kids want to tear their hair out). We moved my oldest to him when he was more than burnt out on Abeka Math. He wanted to move on, but being elementary, the workbooks would have had him STILL doing multiplication and division for a few more years. He already has all of those basic skills down pat, is advanced, and was begging to learn Algebra. So we started him on LOF this year. He went through 2 1/2 books (Fractions, Decimals & Percents...both considered Pre-Algebra...and then halfway through Beginning Algebra before he got stumped and we have to now slow down and put more effort into it). My son is so happy. He's now right where he's supposed to be. He has the basics to continue on and learn more and be challenged. And both my husband and a friend's husband love simply reading the books (the humour is a riot).

[HSKLNG]

.....do a search? Do you know how many thread within threads are there and do not come up only for Lof Fred? I got all kind of Math...

...seriously, I got the Geometry book for my dd, out of the big rave these books were getting. My dd likes it, but she likes books and she reads, but I do not see her doing nothing paperwise....and if she is working the problems on her head, I cannot see that!

How do you organized this book? Do you just give it to your child and hope he/she do the work?

Is there a way to schedule lessons or worksheets?

I got tired of not getting nothing to evaluate if she was getting the info beside the giggles and put the book away.

Now, if you give me some helpful hints I might consider bring it back out. I do not mind her having fun and laughing, she always does....but "show me some understanding", some learning,....you know what I mean?

Please help. Thanks and sorry again for stealing the thread.

[mommaduck]

My child works on one Lesson at a time. In the first two books, he could do a Lesson or Bridge a day. In Algebra, he would work on the Lesson and Your Turn to Play on one day and several days on the Cities. There are now guides for the books after the first two.

[Kimber]

I haven't taught my children Algebra yet, but I have taught Saxon algebra at co-op for a couple of years. I am now collecting algebra text to determine what to use for my oldest who'll be doing Horizons 6 this summer and fall.

I have purchased Lof Fred Fractions and Lof Decimals. Also Lof Beginning Algebra. I plan to buy the geometry too. I really think that unlike any other text I've ever seen, the Lof books teach application of math. The text is one giant story or word problem.

A child using Lof would probably not have to ask what am I going to use this for.

Now I must admit that my own children will probably be using the proofy 1960's new Math texts. But I plan to supplement with Lof by having them read for understanding the applications. The Fred books teach the concepts better than any other text I've ever seen.

I think they could stand alone easily and not be used as a supplement. But you have to require that the students work the problems and not just read them. His problems are very intersting.

BTW, I'm just learning about New Math. And as I understand (please correct me anybody :) ) The proofy math explains the logic behind the math, knowing and understanding which properties justify certain manipulations of math equations.

Fred has these too, but they are only there as examples to the students (Algebra 1 is the only one I've seen). The students aren't required to justify or prove their work. So the Lof books are more of a modern approach. But he takes it one step further in that he shows why and displays application in a fun format.

My math plans for my dd in 1.5 years.

Life of Fred Fractions
Life of Fred Decimals and Percents ( these two would serve as pre-algebra)
Dolciani Book 1 (Read Fred to understand the applications and work the problems in Dolciani via proofs)
Geometry (researching texts now)
Dolciani Book 2
Dolciani Modern Analysis (I forgot the title, but I have it already)

Good Luck!

[In The Great White North]

for some of his books, that breaks it down into daily assignments, has extra practice problems and more answers.

We didn't find that necessary. My dd wasn't impressed with Fractions (probably because we have doing school a la Waldorf and she's not used to any textbooks of any sort). She wanted to just read the story and ignore the math.

Ds liked Algebra II, which we used to supplement Foersters. Fred's explanations were easier to understand.

You could use Fred as your primary or only) text, especially if you got the Homeschool Companion for the extra problems. I compared Algebra II to Foersters Algebra II and Trig and all the algebra stuff was in both. Trig is a separate book in LoF, which I haven't bought yet.

[Katia]

.....do a search? Do you know how many thread within threads are there and do not come up only for Lof Fred? I got all kind of Math...

...seriously, I got the Geometry book for my dd, out of the big rave these books were getting. My dd likes it, but she likes books and she reads, but I do not see her doing nothing paperwise....and if she is working the problems on her head, I cannot see that!

How do you organized this book? Do you just give it to your child and hope he/she do the work?

Is there a way to schedule lessons or worksheets?

I got tired of not getting nothing to evaluate if she was getting the info beside the giggles and put the book away.

Now, if you give me some helpful hints I might consider bring it back out. I do not mind her having fun and laughing, she always does....but "show me some understanding", some learning,....you know what I mean?

Please help. Thanks and sorry again for stealing the thread.

If you have the Geometry book, you can read the "to the teacher" section in the front of the book. He explains exactly how to use book and what to have your student do. My dd (18yo) just read it and the "to the student" section and figured out how to use the book for herself, but she has already taken a Geometry course and is just doing Fred on-her-own to solidify the concepts. She also feels she is finally understanding why and how geometry is useful in life.

If your dd is not doing any writing, then she is NOT using the book correctly. There are LOTS of proofs to write. My dd has a lot to write and evaluate each day. There is an answer key; did you purchase that as well? There is no home companion for Geometry as extra problems were not needed and the even answers are in the answer key.

Yes, you can break it down and schedule it. We are aiming at one chapter per week. You'll need to read the "to the teacher" section and get into the book and see what will work for your dd as far as scheduling goes.

And yes, my younger dd just picked up the book and read some of the story and didn't do the math....but that is just reading. She isn't 'doing math' if she doesn't write out the problems and figure them out. You can grade/check them along with her.

For my younger dd, I write out what she needs to do each day. She is using the Advanced Algebra book, so just have her do a lesson per day as listed in the Home Companion, but I'll need to write out a schedule for her when she does the Geometry.

I'm sorry, but I can't even imagine getting a math text for my children and handing them the book and expecting them to do or schedule it on their own without having looked at it and read all the instructor information in it first, and then putting it away and not using it because I'm not seeing any paper-work. That's just beyond my comprehension as a home-schooling mom because that is my job.

The information for using the book is in the book, and you can also email the author for any other help you need. He has returned all my emails within 1 day (24 hours).

[GailV]

.....do a search? Do you know how many thread within threads are there and do not come up only for Lof Fred? I got all kind of Math...


I'm reading this thread for the LoF info (we're probably buying it, but haven't yet, so it's always good to see more info on it) but wanted to comment on the "do a search". You can put a phrase (in this case life of fred -- no need to use caps) in when you use the big red search button. That will give you all of the threads that mention Life of Fred, which is 4 pages worth. All of these will have your search phrase highlighted in red.

But, gees, who wants to slog through 4 pages of posts, many of which may only mention Life of Fred once in passing? What if there are 40 posts in a thread, and only 1 of those mentions Life of Fred? Wouldn't it be handy to zero in on the exact post that popped that thread into your search?

If you click on one of those threads you will see various thread tools at the beginning of the posts, including, yes, a new search box. You can use it to search long threads for posts that specifically mention a phrase. That way you can see if it was a longer discussion, or just someone saying, "Oh, we're using Life of Fred."(You can even use a new search phrase if you want when you do the thread search.)

Insofar as I know, the search functions don't search things you type in the thread titles, so if someone has typed Life of Fred into the title of their reply but not in the body, it won't pop up this way.

Okay, back to LoF discussion.

[Kelley]

Thanks for all of the replies!
So, which books are considered Pre-Algebra?
I do not mind you hijacking the thread, it allows for more discussion and questions that I may not have thought of.

Also, is this program mainly a supplement?

If so, how do you schedule it in when your daughter really doesn't like math to begin with.:001_huh: We have used singapore (K-4) and BJU (5-7).

Kelley

[mommaduck]

Fractions
Decimals & Percents

Those are the Pre Algebra books. And those books stand very well on their own ;)


LOF is not considered a supplement. However, depending upon how your child learns and their strengths and weaknesses, you could bump it to supplement status while doing purely formula Algebra from another company with them. Example, my son finally found his stumping point in the middle of Beginning Algebra. I'm going to incorporate MUS Algebra 1 Honors for him and bump LOF to supplement status...basically LOF will be where he clicks in his mind the life application as well as being challenged more than the MUS text would have him.

[GailV]

So, stupid question of the week:

Dd is doing the Key to ... books on fractions, percents, and decimals because she felt she needed to brush up on those before starting a pre-algebra program. Is she actually doing the equivalent of a pre-algebra program, then, since the LoF books for pre-algebra cover the same skills?

How long does it take to get through the LoF fractions, decimals and percents? I mean, if we would decide to go through the LoF version of these, are we putting off algebra for another year or 2?

I'm thinking she's ready to plunge into the algebra book. I'm also pretty sure she'll balk, claiming she isn't ready --she has issues about trying new things, so where I'd dive right in and figure out later if I needed to "catch up" on some other skills, she wants to be totally, exhaustively prepared.

[Martha]

the percents and decimals books shouldn't take too long to finish.
maybe less than 6 months
then comes beginning algebra which is equal to Alg I in LoF

the author fully expects any student to be able to learn from these texts on their own with little to no assistance from the parents. it's very simply and clearly done. if they have a problem they can call hime at home!:svengo:

I agree with a previous poster, the direction are in the text and the accompaning home companion if there is one.

As for evaluating them...
That seems very simple to me. Look at their work. And they certainly should have some to show. If not, give a pop quiz once in a while by copying one of the bridge tests in the book and seeing how well they do on it. I'm with Katia on this one.:iagree:

[Nan in Mass]

I think you would have to include some of the beginning Keys to Algebra (like 1-3?) before you could call it pre-algebra. They are a nice thing to do before beginning an algebra program, anyway, because are a gentle introduction to variables and negative numbers.

[mommaduck]

Fractions 3mos, D&P 3mos...generally speaking. All they need is to be proficient in Multiplication/Division. Those two books solidify the other skills they've learned and then yes, move on to Beginning Algebra.

Seriously...call the Professor. The gentleman is wonderful to talk with.

[chelsea in TN]

I have been e-mailing back and fourth with the author over the past few days.

As to how long to do the Precents/ Decimals and fractions: he says one lesson is roughly a chapter. With 30 lessons approx in each book + Bridges (tests at end of sections0 you could finish these books in about a semester then move onto Beg. Alg, Alg II, Geomtry, Calculus and the next book in the works is Linear Algebra.

I am still a strong believer in Dolchiani and will continue to use it - but since my son has taken 2 yrs to make it through alg I and is LOVING LOF; I am strongly considering requiring 1 hr of work daily on LOF and then going through the chapter tests in Dolchiani to make sure he can do the problems in a more traditional format.

BTW - I do have the home companion - this makes the course almost idiot proof. You open the Home companion to lesson 1 read the pages in LOF text assigned and do the problems. There are sets of maybe 12-14 problems daily in the home companion PLUS the bridge problems in the test. On the days the bridge is assigned in the home companion there is no any addtional problems assigned in the text.

If you have questions e-mail the author - he is a hoot. A little off the wall but I would have LOVED to have someone like him as a teacher.

As the author said about this not being a complete course - "Poppycock!" COmpare the topics covered to other math texts. Or do like I did - give it a test run with your kid. If it does not work I assure you on the for sale board someone will take it off your hands...... But I bet you will like it :)

[kpupg]

... I would have LOVED to have someone like him as a teacher.
<snip>But I bet you will like it :)

Or if YOU don't particularly like it, your son sure will! The author mentions on his website that one of his goals in writing his curriculum is to get kids to enjoy math -- a concept that was new to me, to be sure! But it works for my son :)
Karen