Life of Fred after 2 years

There are so many crazy philosophies out there about how math is to be taught.  Okay maybe they're not all crazy, but there are several approaches and I do not believe there is a one-size-fits-all program.  I don't like common core.  I don't like strictly old school math either.  What can I do for my kids that will help?  When my daughter was in kindergarten at a Christian school, her teacher wrote that she loved math on her report card.  We brought that same curriculum to home school and by the end of first grade she hated math. 

They used Everyday Mathematics which is aligned with Common Core, but was around before the implementation of Common Core.  There was a lot of busy work and teaching it in first grade was not terrible, but my third grader at the time was lost and behind.  He had fallen behind by second grade and never really caught up.  He never had concretely learned his math facts after addition and that really slowed him down.  It wasn't necessarily his teacher's fault, but what I discovered was that he struggled with the timed tests.  He wouldn't move on to the next problem until he got the first one correct.  I tried to tell him to skip that and do as many as he knew and then come back to the ones that were harder.  That wasn't in his grid.  I started on flash cards and then I found a program called Xtramath that allowed them to practice the harder problems at their own pace.  It works with speed, but wasn't as stressful for him.  The goal is to have a child know each math fact in 3 seconds or less.

Our next leg of the journey took us to Horizons Math by Alpha Omega.  I really appreciate that it gives straight forward instruction and the consumable books have great pictures.  My kids still hated math.  There are a lot of practice problems there, but that really drove them nuts.  I started having them do the odd numbered problems or even numbered problems.  If they missed a type of problem, I had them retry using the opposite answers.  And I am one of those SHOW YOUR WORK parent-teachers.  If you can do it in your head and get it right most of the time, then fine, but if you're getting the answer wrong, how can I help you figure out what you did wrong if you don't show your work?  I found that it was better to give the kids less busy work when they understood the concepts and then drill math facts with Xtramath. 

The year finances were tight, I put the kids on Khan Academy for all their math, but that took us back to Common Core and they were getting confused from switching back and forth.  We did continue with that as our curriculum and they just made it work.  Also Khan keeps adding little things (updates are not necessarily a bad thing).  I took all of the math myself to see what my kids were being taught and I completed first through eighth grade math on Khan Academy as well.  You get to skip concepts that you pass, so NO I didn't sit through hours of 1+1.  A few months later, I went back to Khan and it said I was only 97% complete with second grade and similar with a few other grades.  What???  I went in and the things I had to do to complete each grade were really pointless and I thought, "No wonder some kids come home crying!"  I wish I could recall specifics, but it has been a few years and my memory doesn't want to be jogged right now!  Really I wouldn't make my kids redo the updates, I'm just anal and hate to leave things unfinished when I feel like they've already been accomplishments.

Enter Life of Fred.  One thing I did learn from switching is that each type of curriculum teaches different things at different age levels.  Switching means there were concepts taught that we didn't get to see if we start at the age-appropriate levels which would be in the middle type of curriculum.  I believe this was the concept of Common Core and that is great, I am just not a fan of the implementation and path.  Sorry, I keep getting close to that threshold of making this blog about something different than Life of Fred.  Back on task ... I decided to start my children at the very beginning of the Life of Fred Curriculum.  They were in 5th grade and 7th grade. 

There is a suggestion of when to start this curriculum and I will let you read that on your own if interested instead of trying to retype much of what they've already said well.  The first series is A-J Apples through Jellybeans.  I started my 7th grader on 3 chapters a day and after he completed Apples (19 chapters), I gave it to my 5th grader to do 2 chapters a day.  She worked on math facts until she got the first book.  I think my son did 3 chapters a day clear through Jellybeans and then slowed to 2 and then 1 when he started learning multiple new things.  He was definitely doing only one a day by Fractions.  Since we are beginning our third year for 2 students, I had bought Apples through Jelly Beans,  Kidneys through Mineshaft, Fractions, Decimals & Percents, and Pre-Algebra 0-2.  This year I added Beginning Algebra and I purchased the practice problems for beginning algebra book, though we haven't needed to use it so far.  This was just over $300 to get 2 children through junior high math.  If I were to have to start my kids in kindergarten again, I would probably start them in Life of Fred in the third grade.  We would have just worked on math facts like crazy until then as well as counting and living math and number recognition.  Maybe just use some elementary consumables that you can pick up at any educational store or free printables on the computer.  I would still have used Xtramath.  I may have even supplemented with Khan Academy for some things.

Top favorite things about Life of Fred:

1. Price

2. It is COMPLETELY reusable

3. No busy work

4. No rush to get through it

5. If you have to repeat a concept, it doesn't put you behind in grade-level

6. Until high school, it is not divided by grade level ... even high school is just high school math

7. Fred does some crazy things

8. My daughter once again says that Math is one of her favorite subjects!!!  WIN!!!!

Basically, in Apples to Jellybeans you learn about this boy name Fred who is smart in math and teaches college mathematics.  He is not street smart and has to use math to get out of problems a lot.  His story continues through the rest of the curriculum as well.  You read his story and then you have a segment called "Your turn to play."  There are a few (2-10) questions to answer and then, the STUDENT grades his or her own work.  That is one day of math.  Very little stress!!!  The child should know how to read and these problems are easy enough that a parent can guide them through with ease.  

The next series Kidneys, Liver and Mineshaft are in the same format.  The problems become a little more complicated.  The reason I didn't just jump into the intermediate level with my 7th grader is that there are terms like domain, codomain and function that weren't used as much in other curricula we tried.  Starting at the beginning made those terms less scary for my kids than they are for me.  My son completed all of these books by the end of his first year with Life of Fred.  That was 13 books.  It gave him a sense of accomplishment for sure.  He also completed The next 2 books in his 7th grade year.  He was motivated as he wanted to start high school in the high school level books.

The next two books changed their format a bit.  They are Fractions, and Decimals and Percents.  The student reads the story and then it's their turn to play.  After 5 lessons, they encounter something new, a bridge.  Each bridge has 10 questions covering the material from the beginning of the book up to that point.  They are given 5 opportunities to cross that bridge into the next lesson.  Crossing the bridge requires them to get 9 out of 10 answers correct.  If they can't get the concept they are to repeat the previous 5 lessons and try the bridge again.  They grade their own bridge, but the answers are not at the turn of the page as they are with the "Your Turn to Play," segments.  The answers are at the back of the book.  I already said that my oldest completed these two books along with the other 13 in one year. 

My youngest did get through Fractions and then a portion of Decimals and Percents by the end of 6th grade.  It was more of a struggle for her, though.  She doesn't like to ask questions and when she is tired of learning something, she just guesses at answers to say she finished her work.  Sadly, I think I was like that a bit as well.  While the grades she got were passing last school year, I asked if she wanted to try doing both books again in 7th grade.  She was excited and said, "YES!"  So far she has done 15 lessons and crossed 3 bridges on the first try.  She has only missed a handful of points since we started and last week said, "I think math is one of my favorite subjects!"  Finally!!  It has clicked!

Some of our collection

The next set of books that my oldest completed in 8th grade are the Pre-Algebra 0, 1 and 2.  His least favorite was Pre-Algebra 0 with Physics.  Yes, with Physics.  And they do teach about friction and mass and buoyancy.  It was good for him!!  He missed the part in the intro (that he said he read) that tells you to write down every formula you encounter.  The format of these books is the same as the previous 2.  The author suggests that one should easily get through the 5 intermediate books in 1 to 1 1/2 years.  I would agree.  

Finally, as far as our school goes, we are starting our final series of math books this year.  Beginning Algebra so far is working well with our 9th grader.  He even sat at his desk laughing and when we asked what was so funny, he said, "Fred is going to ... ."  My daughter, who enjoys Fred's adventures started laughing with him.  So if you clicked on the link about when to start, the algebra section mentions that the student should have hair under their arms before starting algebra because it is proof that they are physiologically ready to grasp algebraic concepts.  That cracks me up, but it seems appropriate.  So far my high schooler is making great grades and has not needed any assistance with his math.  There are no bridges in high school math, but there are cities that they visit.  After every 5 lessons, they do about 20 practice problems a day for 3 days to ingrain the concept before moving on.  I am pleased with their progress!

Because there is no teacher manual, it may make one nervous to teach this curriculum.  Well, it really doesn't need to be taught.  Sometimes I will have to read a few chapters to catch up to what is expected, but each answer is explained well and if it still doesn't make sense, we utilize YouTube.  I'm not ashamed to say that conversion factors confuse me and as soon as I watch a YouTube video with them, I remember what the point is and can help them out.  We rarely need to go that route, though.  I'm grateful!

This review is strictly my opinion of this math program.  I am in no way associated with Life of Fred.  I do not receive discounts or anything for reviewing the product, I just wanted to share our experience.  But if the makers of the books want to donate, I would not turn down the next 3 high school books!  

To grade or not to grade? That is the question!

People outside the homeschool world may not realize that this is even a thing, but it really is something that we ask ourselves as homeschool parents, especially in elementary years.  Do I grade, or do I not grade?  Letter grades are given in multi-student classrooms as an objective way to monitor student performance.  One could argue that it should be a must for any student as it is concrete, but I'm not sold on that for the younger student.  In fact, I even look back on my own report cards from public school and see that early on I was given some pass/fails and some Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory/Needs Improvement type grades.

Some opt for a all-in-one school program where a transcript is provided by the curriculum company.  I just am not satisfied with the price or the product of all-in-one high school programs.  Let me clarify, I think many companies do a great job with one or two subjects, but I haven't loved a package deal enough that I'm willing to pay the price to try it out.  AND I love a few of the companies that I've chosen through the years.  I can't say enough about Apologia Science!  My kids and I have enjoyed that through elementary and the kids loved it less in middle and high school as they're expected to do lab reports and hypotheses.  Teacher Momma loves that they are required to do that!  Since I use a different company for almost every subject, I find myself in need of a way to keep good records, grade reports, and now a high school transcript.

I have aligned our curriculum schedule with our state's Board of Regents guidelines so that a college transition and possibility for scholarships improves.  I know there are many ways to do grading and high school.  This is just our way at LSA.  All high school courses are getting a letter grade and we are using the 4 point grading system that many high schools across the USA use as well.  I could figure out the algorithm, it's  not that hard, but I have an app for that!  One of the best investments I've made in record keeping for homeschool is Homeschool Helper.  According to AppBrain.com it hasn't been updated since 2014, but is available for Apple and Android and is still $4.99.  I've been using it for several years and it still has previous years' information on it, but that is mostly hidden.

Homeschool Helper Start-up screen

Homeschool Helper is great as I input my grading scale, all the classes with resources and my student names.  It keeps track of attendance, has a reading log, a fieldtrip log and grade book.  It also has a planner which directly translates to the gradebook by clicking, "create grade for this lesson," button.  The attendance record is by the day or half-day.  In Kansas, we have to have days that are an approximate equivalent to a 6 hour school day, so if we do 5-8 hours (yes we do long days sometimes) I select full day.  If we do 2-4 hours, I click half day.  If we only do one hour, I don't generally count the day at all.  I may record it in the field trip area, but not count it in my days.  The reality is that we really need the book days to complete our work, so I don't over-do the field trip or extra-curricular activities counting as school days.

The open book of Homeschool Helper.  Each subject has a tab.  You can calculate the grade right there and plug it in.

I had chosen a grading scale that had 69% as failing.  The reason being I don't want a care giver or even someone doing any service for me that is only 62% competent, but they passed.  In high school, I did relax my standard a bit and made it as 65% is still passing.  My reason for this decision is that most schools in our area have a 60-70-80-90 grading scale.  My kids are both interested in college and their GPA will compete with the GPAs of other smart kids who are rated on an easier scale.  Until high school, I still expect the 70-78-86-93 work.  High school's change is slight, but 65-74-83-92.  I have no ill feelings for anyone who chooses any grading scale.  I just love that we can choose those details about our home schools!  I think sometimes that I do want to prove naysayers wrong that homeschooling is not slacking.  We don't raise incompetent learners.

THE SUBJECTIVE

Here is the rough part about grading.  I'm their mom!  Everything they do is wonderful, right?  Well it's not.  I do think my children are bright.  I have high standards for them, but there are places I push them and places I don't.  My husband pushes them in places that I don't and that is a great balance for them.  We support each other as a team!  Here are subjects that really mess with me, though.  Physical Education, Art, Music, Projects, Speeches, Creative Writing.  I know that if they say 8x7 is 49, they are wrong.  One child had a 5-day project to tell how other nations influence our culture today.  They had to make a visual representation.  I gave them input that they could draw arrows on a map that are color coded to imports and exports, etc. and they ran with it.  I received a printout of a world map.  There were 4 colors of ink used and a scribbled key and a bunch of curved lines that look like a sloppy airline map of where this and that airline flies to.  5 days to make this???  So I shared that I will try to rate these projects as if they were submitted to the fair.  "What color ribbon would this get?  It looks like you only spent 15 minutes on it!"  The response I got from the child was, "I did only spend 15 minutes on it."  As a parent/teacher I don't even know what to do with that!!!  I have nothing to compare it to with other students.  What should I expect of a child that age?  It hasn't been graded at the time of this post.  I'm searching the curriculum company for advise on objective ways to grade this type of project.

You choose whether you want percentages or the E, S, NI, U grading systems.

Art, Music and Physical Education are graded mostly by effort applied.  That is changing in high school.  So far, I have nothing to grade, but I'm looking on how to navigate that.  I really prefer the younger grades with a pass/fail.  I have a page that I've developed for writing criteria.  It includes whether or not the subject is covered, grammar, sentence structure, use of a variety of adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and descriptive nouns.  How many paragraphs are in there and what the topic sentence and closing sentence looks like.  I have a speech grading criteria as well.  I'm looking forward to forensics, though and I will grade by the rating they receive.  Someone who doesn't love them and think they're adorable can give them a score for those things.  I am likely to find a grading criteria for the other subjective subjects so that I can be confident that I'm grading as an unbiased teacher would grade.

ELEMENTARY YEARS

I started homeschool as many homeschool parents and tried to format it like a public school, but after experiencing it for a while, I relaxed my approach.  It adapted to where during the elementary years, I hardly graded anything.  A handwriting grade just killed my little girl!  I switched to putting a heart around the letters or words that looked really good and making a mark by those I could not read.  Homeschool Helper App has an option to give grades of Excellent, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, and unsatisfactory.  They don't have a pass/fail option, but I would appreciate that.  I understand why a teacher of 20 would need the NI option so the parent can see it.  Personally, I know when my child is not doing well and help them before moving on.  I have been guilty of not grading something for a few weeks and not realize that they need improvement until they've moved on.  I feel terrible as they are circling the verb, too, when they were supposed to circle the complete subject.  Things like that do happen and we review instead of grade.  Coming up to middle school, I began to grade the concrete things and I guess I always graded math.  I do give 1/2 credit for answers that are close, but incorrect.  I would much rather see a try than a skip.  For instance I recently received an answer that was correct in some instances, but not in what the text just explained.  I gave half credit.  The next question asked something specific and the answer written was not remotely about the content in any setting.  They got no credit for that answer.  I do want my kids to thrive outside the walls of my home.

Would you fail your own child in a subject?  Yes.  I have done it and will do it again if I need to.  Now there is a math concept that one of my children could get correct for the tests last year, but in review, it was like they were never taught how to do it.  I will just say it.  Fractions!  We could do great with adding, we could do great with subtracting, we did great with multiplying, but then forgot how to add and subtract.  Once we got to dividing, we forgot how to do all of the others.  Conversion factors make sense while in the unit where we do them every day, but get past it and come back to it and its gone.  I have a rough time with explaining them, because I do all of it in my head and have to step back and slow down to explain it again each time.  We are redoing 2 whole math books.  No shame!  We use Life of Fred math and supplement with YouTube o
n occasion.  The program is fantastic and has brought us back around from hating math to somewhat enjoying it again.  There is no rush to complete everything, and by high school the concepts should be solid.  I would rather that than try to push through just to say we did.  Why push through something that isn't understood?

I'm just beginning in high school so I found a credit planner that I really like so far.  You can find it here.  They have many more printables and template downloads, so you might want to check out their whole site! 

I'm not paid to advertise for the people I promote, I just want to share things that work for me!

Story of the World - my take

I have heard, rather read, several negative reviews about Story of The World by Susan Wise Bauer saying that this is not a Christian curriculum and other things.  While I have only used the first year and purchased the second year and skimmed it briefly, I really feel it has been given some unfair press.

I researched the author and she is a Christian.  She claims to be a Christian and her writings outside of this curriculum suggest that she is a believer in the resurrected Son of God.  It is not mine to debate her faith, nor is at for anyone else to debate.  Her publishing company is called Peace Hill Press, feel free to explore it on your own.

The curriculum in question is not out and out Christian as some homeschool curricula.  What I mean by that is that each chapter does not contain a Bible reference, lesson or story.  Instead, each chapter is written about a different civilization or time from the perspective of someone who could have lived in that time period or culture.  The author is a story teller.  The facts are included in these stories to give a timeline and culturally significant details within a folk-tale-like lesson.

The very thing that many are opposed to is that Bible stories are treated in the same manner as other stories.  My argument against that is if we are learning the Chinese emperors and are expected to believe this is, in fact, history, we should also believe that the Bible stories are, in fact, history.  When she she shares about things like the Cyclops or other mythological beings, she clarifies the difference.  Not many world history books include Bible history as fact.  In my opinion, this alone clearly makes this series Christian.

Now, I questioned a few things in her timeline, but even Bauer acknowledges this when you look at the appendix.  "In order to keep the narrative coherent, I have occasionally told the story of one culture or country before going back in time to begin the story of another." (Page 389 SOTW Volume 2:The Middle Ages)  even the Bible itself is not in Chronological order.  There are so many philosophies about how a history book should be written so there are certainly going to be people that disagree with her approach.  She has a definite targeted audience and that audience is reached with this style.

The next argument is that she skips the flood and several key Bible teachings in this book.  Now as Christian home educators, are we really going to solely rely on anyone's history writings to teach our children the Bible?  There is an interspersing of Bible in all we do.  Not a day goes by that we do not talk about the Bible, so even if I only have 2 pieces of curriculum that mention the Bible in daily work, we are still giving them more Word than they would get at a public school.  Peace Hill Press even offers a Bible Curriculum, which I will not entertain as I have no first-hand knowledge of it and have only read reviews.  I personally do not use a Bible curriculum at all because we read our Bibles and pray and discuss things using our Bibles all the time.  My kids' Sunday School teachers tell me that my kids have the answers to most of the questions and can tell the stories along side the teachers, so I am confident that we are in the Word enough.

Now if someone wants to argue that their children don't care for it or they don't care for her style, I get that.  Not every student and not every teacher are the same.  That is why it is such a joy to homeschool and teach what works for our families.  My kids are excited about history and I can hardly keep them from reading ahead.  To me, this makes a good curriculum.  I have researched some of the things mentioned in the book and found the book to agree with other Christian and non-Christian writers.  There have been a few discrepancies, BUT in those cases, there were several theories floating about regarding that piece of history.  For instance, she describes the process of mummification.  The recipe and amount of days for each stage was different in this book than my niece's history book from a Christian school and different in a few different web sites.  Those details are not important for memorization or testing and it is not enough for me to want to throw out the book.  Especially if historians can't agree on them.

What we love is the stories.  My kids retain the information well and after reading it to themselves, they usually get most of the review questions correct.  Sometimes I do review orally and sometimes written. My son loves the map work and my daughter loves the coloring.  My son was in 4th grade last year and didn't care for the coloring pages.  They both loved the games and extra activities that are optional in the activity guide.  The tests are well formatted and give a great review of each chapter.  My second grader passed them all.

The whole curriculum is not necessary, but we did purchase it.  I opted for the hard cover text this year since we are not nice to paperbacks.  I ordered one activity book which has the activity pages at the end and review questions, additional reading, and projects, games and recipes at the beginning.  I then ordered a set of activity pages for each child.  For the cost of my ink and paper, this was a less expensive option for me.  I also chose to order a test book for each child as well.

I would say that is my 2 cents, but I think I put more in there than that. 

A picture of one of our game days.  The instructions told us to use beans and a penny.  We chose glam.