Anyone use Life of Fred books? I'm not homeschooling at this time but am wanting to help my daughter understand her math better. She usually understands it but is having difficulty with fractions plus she likes to know more the reasons than just memorizing facts. She is 7 and in second grade and Life of Fred seems like a program that she would enjoy and could help her continue to learn and understand math more. Also how do you know what books to start with? I don't want to buy a book that is above her too much but don't want them to be too easy either. Any help or advice would be great. Thanks
Life of Fred is a fun way to sneak in some math during quality reading time with your child...that's how I see it, since my children are elementary age, so LOF hasn't gone into the really gritty stuff... Its a fun read, and there are lots of other little tidbits in there, random snippets of information, such as Archimedes, or the seasons of the year. You might try to look for it at your library first, so you can get an idea
We have the first two. Like most things, LOF depends on the child. Phillip is finishing up Fractions and Percents, but it hasn't really sunk in as much as we'd like. Fred doesn't have a lot of practice and review.
We use Fred. I LOVE IT, but I don't think it'll work for what you're wanting. It's not the type of curriculum where you can pull out the chapter on fractions from the 2nd grade book and do a little extra practice. It's the type where you have to read the whole elementary series to understand what's going on and learn a little about fractions (before getting into the grade 5+ fractions book), because the whole series is intertwined. The elementary series is for 1st thru 4th, and there are 10 books, which means the grade levels overlap. The fractions book is for appx 5th grade, for kids who have mastered multiple digit adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division. Fred doesn't have any drill. It's great for kids who "get" math and don't need a lot of practice, but it's not for kids who are struggling and need lots of practice. I don't know if your daughter is having trouble with facts or not, but I thought I'd throw that out there as well. It's completely normal for a 7 year old not to know all their facts, by the way, and it wouldn't keep them from doing the elementary series. If you want to supplement with the entire series, it may be a good idea, but then again, if her school is using that "everyday math" weird stuff, it might be too confusing to learn two completely different programs.
