I have children who are not too keen on doing Math. I found Life of Fred to be an enjoyable and refreshing alternative for my kids to do Math in a unique way. Life of Fred Math curriculum is in a book format that follows the life of a character named Fred. The books are filled with humorous nonsensical stories of Fred’s life. Throughout the entire story the author weaves in math concepts for the kids to learn. At the end of each chapter, there is an opportunity for kids to answer math questions and test their knowledge of the concepts that were taught in the story. “Life of Fred” curriculum is not very repetitive, so it may not be enough practice for a student that needs a lot of repetition. I use it along side my normal math as a fun supplement. My kids are eager to finish “normal” math so they can do Life of Fred. “Life of Fred” curriculum has books for all grades. It starts at Kindergarten age and goes all the way through post high school math. I know some parents use “Life of Fred” curriculum alone as their only math. This would be fine for a student who doesn’t need a lot of practice or for a student who gets overwhelmed and needs math in small amounts. You could always find worksheets to reinforce practicing the concepts that they had a harder time with. “Life of Fred” books sell for around $17 dollars per book. Another thought is the books are not written as easy readers. So, if you were starting with a Kindergartener, then you would read the book to the child and do the math with them. I started the first book with my first grader this year and I still read the book to him and then he does the math at the end of each chapter. As a family we have enjoyed following Fred on his adventures through Math. “Life of Fred” curriculum has helped make math enjoyable and fun especially for my kids who drag their feet at the mention of Math. You can find “Life of Fred” books at lifeoffredmath.com
Category: Math
Math for the Visual Learner
I have blogged before about my son who has APD (Auditory Processing Disorder). If you have APD, it is quite difficult to learn things in an auditory way. My son is amazing at Math but he was not understanding the material when I would use a normal “workbook” math curriculum. I needed to find a Math Curriculum that was mostly visual for him to understand the concepts.
Teaching Textbooks was a great answer for what we were looking for. Its a Math curriculum that is done on the computer. My son went from getting almost every problem wrong to getting almost every problem correct. Teaching Textbooks is a visual curriculum that will appeal to visual learners like my son. The only thing that I caution parents on, is that Teaching Textbooks moves slower than a lot of other curriculum. So, you would want to cover more material in the upper grades to match some of the other math curriculum out there. The curriculum can be very repetitive which works amazing for someone with APD but might not go fast enough for other kids. My older son who loves “workbook” type curriculum would be driven nuts by Teaching Textbooks because of the pace that they set. Each child is different and has different ways that they learn best.
Another resource for the visual learner is Mango Math. Mango Math is a company that puts together crates for each grade of various Math Games that reinforce math concepts that are being taught. They are on the more expensive side because they are designed for a classroom but homeschool families do use them. Each crate has 20-25 math games depending on the grade. The games are well done and its a quality product.
The use of different Math DVD’s have been very helpful in reinforcing what I am teaching. Mathtacular is a wonderful series that goes up to 8th grade. The videos teach math concepts in an understandable and fun way. All my kids loves watching them. Another Math DVD is TimeTales. Two of my kids have struggled to learn their times tables. TimeTales uses the clever way of associating stories with the different times tables to help the child remember their times. I have found the more I can appeal to the different learning styles in my son, the more he remembers. When I use visual, kinesthetic, and auditory to teach a concept, he is more likely to retain the information.
Living the Adventure 