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Help!!! We decided to use Life of Fred for the past year or so, and it has worked well, until now. My 14 yo is confused, and my husband is frustrated. We can't decide if my son isn't being thorough enough, isn't reading the assignments correctly OR if the program just isn't working for us. I saw the videotext algebra that Carrie suggests at conference and I liked it, but hubby really wanted to give LOF a shot, as he likes the idea behind it. I do too, really BUT we just don't have the time to spend hours on algebra, with the little children, pregnancy, etc.

We've jumped around a bit in math, going from Singapore to MUS to LOF. I don't know what to do for this child. For the rest of the kids I'm certain that we will use Singapore and then Videotext Algebra. But for him, I'm not sure how to get past this bump.

****forgot to say, his problem is turning the word problems LOF uses into an equation. Once he has the equation, it's easy. So this is a thinking issue, right???

I so feel what you are saying. We just went through something similar here.

Have you heard of a book called Understanding Mathematics from Counting to Calculus? It is awesome! This is a book I bought years ago, and didn't have the energy to implement back then. I wish I had. This fall we took about a 3 week break from dd's TT Pre-Alg. and read through this each morning, working out problems together. It worked wonders and got dd over the hump. She resumed her TT work, soaring, with no complaints (which were constant prior to this break we took). She was much happier. She wanted more review before moving onto Alg. 1, so we're currently using Math Essentials Pre-Alg + dvd. She is really liking this, and has asked to use their No-Nonsense Alg. before going back to TT. Since the cost is much lower than TT, I've agreed. We'll access later where to go from there.

I highly recommend Understanding Mathematics. It's great alongside any program, and so much more than what it first seems. The author whole goal is for people to understand and enjoy math.

The nice thing is that going through this book helped me as well. There were things that would stump me. This book had me popping out answers faster than my dd, and that was an incentive all on it's own to not let mom beat her! There were a lot of "A-ha!" moments going on here during those weeks. It certainly helped for things that were a constant struggle with dd to click much faster.

We really liked LOF. My son began HOD with Preparing, so we decided not to follow the recommended path for math. We wanted to just stick with a program and see it through. We continued MUS until we hit a roadblock that my ds just couldn't move past. We then switched to LOF (it was highly recommended & cheap) and began with Fractions. Unfortunately, the truth is, once we hit Algebra it became more difficult. For us, the math became lost in the story. So, we had to move away from the LOF. .

My suggestion would be to add VT Algebra that Carrie recommends. My son is working on both. He did not want to give up LOF (I would have let him), but he wanted to make sure that he thoroughly understood the math being taught. He has said that one advantage of the "new" program is that it has lots of review and practice. He told me that he liked not having as many problems with LOF, but that he was able to remember everything better with more practice. HTH.

Motherjoy,

I must admit that with my oldest son, after finishing Math Essentials Pre-Algebra, we were going to head into what has now become No-Nonsense Algebra (however only the video lessons and some of the worksheets were done at that time). So, since I didn't feel this was enough, I added Life of Fred Algebra. We went along fine for awhile, but then the Life of Fred program became pure agony. The lessons became very long, because of the endless problem sets (or cities). Even after downsizing the number of problems, we found that there wasn't enough help or examples given in the lessons to figure out how to set up various problems. The solving of the problems themselves were not terribly difficult, however the setting up was (with the few examples provided in the text). Our math lessons were taking hours.

After almost 6 months of Life of Fred, we finally stopped and just began VideoText. My son was so much happier and has now completed all of VideoText Algebra (which is the equivalent of Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, and Algebra II). He is now doing VideoText Geometry. For us, Life of Fred wasn't straight-forward enough. My very creative older son actually was glad to get rid of the "fun" story and just get down to the math. So, my personal opinion is that Life of Fred may be a fun supplement for some kiddos, but I wouldn't ever want to use it as our sole math program. We felt that there was more instruction needed in order to effectively know how to set up and solve the problems (and without a good foundation in Algebra, I shuddered to think how we would fare in the upper levels of math). We did have the Teacher Helper book too with Life of Fred, so there were no other components that we needed.

My advice to you at this point would be to either look at No-Nonsense Algebra (knowing you will need something else for Algebra II), or look at VideoText (knowing this will take you through Algebra I and II - however you will want to stay the course if you begin VideoText, as the algebras are integrated within each other, so all modules must be completed to claim credit).

Blessings,
Carrie

Thank you for sharing that. After my dd is done with Math Essentials, I think I should have her look at VT before making a decision on what to go with next.

We had a similar experience to many here. We have jumped around a bit, too, in math, struggling to find the best fit, and now Algebra is going "ok". We did use LOF from Fractions, Decimals, Pre-Algebra with Biology, and started Algebra I--and even though our dd was doing well with all the assignments and loving it, when she tested at the end of the year (IOWA Basic Skills Test), her math scores were way lower than everything else. (She was in the high percentiles for everything, except math, which was well below.) She wasn't retaining or getting enough practice/review to be able to do the math in a more traditional setting (even after years before with Abeka and ACE Math, and some time with TT).

SO, we headed back to the drawing board and ended up going with Saxon 8/7 last year (and this year, Algebra I), and, thankfully, math skills have improved quite a bit (although there are still some struggles). I am eager to see how her math scores have improved with testing this spring. (Our homeschool group didn't offer the test last year, but I know that the Saxon was working really well.) I guess, for us, going back to the traditional math (Saxon with the Teacher CD-ROMs) was what was needed. (But, we are still using LOF Algebra, just as a fun supplement on our Fridays off of HOD.)

Carrie, thank you for taking the time to answer. We originally iced the idea of VT because of price. For some reason, I discounted the second option, No Nonsense, but I'm looking at it again. Thanks for reminding me. I'm hoping that we can do something to help him over this hump, and make sure he has a good foundation in math.