Fibbing his way through Life of Fred

[annettemarie]

Sigh.

Today, on page 137, my ten-year-old confessed to me that he's been cheating his way through Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents and doesn't know what the heck he's doing.

I feel disappointed, because he said he wanted to go through it alone, and almost every day I've checked with him and said "How did it go? Do you need any help?" and it was always "Doing great, passed the bridge, go me! "

But he's getting towards the end and I guess he figured it was better to 'fess up than be found out.

So... what do I do? Start back at the beginning and do it with him? Supplement? Chuck it and try something else altogether?

[kathymuggle]

I still like Life of Fred, but.....

I do not like decimals as much as I like fractions.

There is a lot of heavy decimal/dividing work at the beginning of the book. It can get a little tedious. My own opinion is that it needs to be broken up.

The other issue with LOF is how the sequence is laid out.

If you start fractions around grade 5
do decimal around grade 6
you would be starting algebra in grade 7.

Some kids are ready to start algebra in 7 and some are not.

If your son is 10 and doing decimals - do you intend to start him on algebra next year? That is early for most kids.

In any event, my DD (11) just finnished LOF - fractions. I do not feel she is ready to start decimals yet (my older child is breezing through it, though) We have decided to take break from LOF until next year - and we are now using Challenge Math.

http://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Elem.../dp/0967991552

We have only had it two weeks, but so far so good. It is for kids who are strong in math. I am really starting to beleive that piecemeal is a good approach for math. avariety of sources for information is working well for us rather than "one way". It is a little more work for the mothers, but I do beleive peicemeal as it honours where kids are at in any particualr moment is a great way to spark interest and preserve or foster math love.

[kathymuggle]

I do not think I answerred your question, lol.

If he is determined to do it independantly, get something simpler for now, and keep LOF decimal till later.

If he is game for going over it with you -start at the beginning and see how he does.

I do not think it would hurt to have another quality math product around no matter what. Mix and match often works

[AAK]

Since he confessed, how about asking him what he would like to do. Would he like to still use LOF but with guidance, or would he prefer a different approach. Either way, I would make sure to spot check his progress to make sure this doesn't happen again. It would be a bummer to have to repeatedly start something over again.

Amy

[mangopassion]

Originally Posted by AAK

Since he confessed, how about asking him what he would like to do. Would he like to still use LOF but with guidance, or would he prefer a different approach. Either way, I would make sure to spot check his progress to make sure this doesn't happen again. It would be a bummer to have to repeatedly start something over again.

Amy

I agree. He fessed up to cheating so he should probably get a choice in where to go from here. Maybe don't give him full reign, but have different options and let him choose.

[theretohere]

Originally Posted by mangopassion

I agree. He fessed up to cheating so he should probably get a choice in where to go from here. Maybe don't give him full reign, but have different options and let him choose.

: I do think it showed maturity to come clean before getting caught.

[Dar]

The Key to workbooks are nice on decimals and percents... and cheap...

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by Dar

The Key to workbooks are nice on decimals and percents... and cheap...

I was thinking about those too. And I think they're good for demonstrating how fractions, decimals, and percents are related. - Lillian

[pajamajes]

Originally Posted by mangopassion

I agree. He fessed up to cheating so he should probably get a choice in where to go from here. Maybe don't give him full reign, but have different options and let him choose.

Mhm. This.

[annettemarie]

Well, he was about to get caught. But I love the idea of asking him. I'll have a chat this weekend and will definitely post back and let you all know how it goes!

[LauraLoo]

If it helps, I cheated on math when I was about your ds' age. I used a calculator to do all of my homework and then bombed the math test. I was horrified - I had never, ever gotten an E before. I can't remember if I told my mom or not (something tells me I did.) But I do remember asking to speak with my math teacher privately and then confessed to him and asked for a second chance. (He was a very scary, tough teacher - so getting my guts up was the hardest part.) He let me study and take the test over again. I figured out that if I was really going to learn something, I needed to do the work. It was a pretty valuable lesson for me.

[tankgirl73]

DS did something similar when we started using LOF Fractions. I forget how far he got, but he just wasn't doing the questions or the bridges, or just copying the answers, and going through way too fast. He didn't understand what he was doing. We started over (I insisted but he was fine with it) and I watched him doing the work for the first little while. I had to help him through some stuff he didn't understand. Then once I was certain he was on the ball, we let him go on his own again.

In my personal experience and opinion, LoF isn't enough for a standalone curriculum for most students. For real math-geared kids, it probably is. It's not for my son. We use it as a supplement (also doing RightStart and some Math Mammoth when we need extra practice on specific topics). He loves LoF, loves the funny stories, loves that there are not millions of problems to do, loves doing it independently, and MOST of the time the explanations make sense to him. It's just not QUITE enough on its own for him.