One of our choices for math this year was Life of Fred. Really we are using a few things, but we all love math! We have the Art of Problem solving (Prealgebra), the Go Math 6th grade book that the local school uses – (we have the 7th-grade book also), and we are using IXL. Life of Fred was the choice that came with our boxed curriculum choice for the year We are adding a lot to it, but it’s so nice to have a set path with materials to work through.
Our Life of Fred prealgebra came with three books and we added a book with Zillions of Problems to help practice. Originally we had no clue what to expect, but the Life of Fred program turned out to be a math textbook that read like a book. It’s about a teacher at Kittens University that has to solve problems to complete tasks and walks through experiments to solve the problems that he runs into. The first book focused on physics and started with a safe that was too heavy to move being dropped off in the hallway. Fred had to find a way to get the safe moved down a hallway and into an office. Force, mass, coefficient of fiction all came into play in the calculations. There was even an accident that Fred had to work out that left the reader feeling for Fred. After physics, we’ll work through economics and biology with Fred.
We enjoyed making it more interesting by trying some of the experiments. Our table was soon covered with all sorts of interesting sets to measure resistance and calculate force! White boards were hung on walls to leave up formulas and words like potential and kinetic were thrown around…. We are also including the other math books and we are including a lot of experiments, so three months in we are still on the first of the three Life of Fred books… but so far we like it. In my opinion the books the books are also working toward answering that popular question of why do I need to know this? and what will I ever use this for? Most people would never actually take the time to calculate the exact force needed to move a safe, but it good to know that it’s possible.
Pre-Algebra Life of Fred With
Biology
I am a SAHM/WAHM of three boys ranging in age from 13 to 29. We are working on saving enough for college at the same time as dealing with school and our older independent kids. I author a few blogs, including http://teched4kids.com. I have in the past taught computer information technology classes for the local university and taught workshops for kid's in technology education besides being the Kentucky State FIRST LEGO League Championship Coordinator from 2005 to 2008. I now work as a computer consultant, run a handmade home business, and am available for workshops. Life here is always an adventure!
