Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Life of Fred for summer enrichment, what level?

The Life of Fred series sounds like a good choice for my mathy son to mess with over the summer. Problem is, I am not quite sure which level is best. He is eight and just finished 3rd grade. His MAP math achievement scores put him at end of 9th grade. I know this is only his conceptual ability, that he is not actually ready to do 9th grade work. He does not yet know how to do long division or have his times tables completely memorized, so clearly we are not ready for the algebra book, even if conceptually, he could understand it. Honey looked right to me from a basic skills standpoint. It covers long division and complex multiplication. Has anyone used this series who can give me some guidance? I am fine with it being a bit on the easy side. I just don't want him to be bored.

We have the first three books on order for our DD9.5. I, too, was unsure which books to get. On the website, the author suggests that if multiplications are not memorized to start at the beginning. Sorry, I can't offer any more help... we're still waiting for them to arrive. I figured that if they are too easy for DD, that DS3.5 will be able to use them soon, so no money would be wasted either way.

So confusing! Maybe I will do the ALEKS online thing with him for a few weeks, see if I can get him up to speed on the division and his tables, then go for the fractions and decimal books.