Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Life of Fred -- Apples? Edgewood?

Quick question about math resources. I'm looking to pick up some stuff to have around this summer for DS6, who loves reading and is super mathy. I'm thinking of Life of Fred. The author recommends starting at the beginning, but I don't want to spend the money if he'll end up not using them. (He's strong on logic and got a 160 on KTEA math, but hasn't done any times tables yet.)

Would you start with Apples? jump ahead? Any other recommendations?

Thanks, in advance!

I was in the same boat with DS5. So I just jumped ahead to LOF Fractions. I didn't like the idea of starting at the beginning, no matter what, and I think the author's recommendation of going back to the beginning, if you finish, is a little ridiculous and only aimed at making more sales. That said, Fractions was a good place for US to start, and I see no problem with having missed the earlier ones. In fact, there is still so much stuff in these that is review. So, go ahead and jump, without following author's recommendations. I don't have advise on which one you should start with, but you really don't NEED to read all of them for them to make sense. They seems to be over-heavy on filling you in on what is going on. And as others on here have said, these aren't a complete curriculum - just some fun math filler. After doing the Fractions book, we aren't going to be getting any of the others - but I am glad we tried it and I do think it was worth it.

Thanks, Portia and Phey! We are considering EPGY, but haven't done it yet, and I've been reading up on Math Beast and Challenging Word Problems. So much to choose from!

I've been reading up on as much as I can, once kids are sleeping, etc. What I like about LOF is the way math concepts -- cardinal numbers, sets, parentheses, etc. -- are worked in as he tells the story. *Seems* like a natural way to introduce stuff they don't typically cover at school and that my DS would love.

My son is very mathy and he loved Life of Fred - I ordered the first 4 books as a set. He read them all in a week but he goes back and rereads them. They don't just have math in them - they are told as a story and there are other tidbits of info in there relating to other subjects that he learned as well. I need to order the next 4.

DS5 is not particularly mathy but still loved LOF 1-4 as they are quirky stories

Thanks! I will definitely pick a few up!

I am facing this same dilemma. They all seem to cover *something* that DS doesn't yet know (either math or non-math), but it's hard to know what the cutoff should be. DS's math skills are all over the map, so anything other than individual tutoring is going to be hard to fit.

I am trying to borrow a selection of the elementary and intermediate books from friends before we buy any.

eta: FWIW, DS finds EPGY pretty dry, and I don't see it as a long term math curriculum.

Our library has them, so since they're free for us to use we started at the beginning. DD LOVES them! If we owned them she'd be re-reading them all the time.

Now if I were spending money for them and hadn't used them yet, I would also be hesitant to start with Apples due to the cost & not yet knowing if they'd work for my kid. I'd agree with trying to borrow some of the earlier ones first.

We're on Goldfish right now, and it went from just introducing the concept of multiplication to asking students to multiply 2-digit numbers. DD doesn't have times tables memorized (nor have we tried to do that yet) so I'm not sure if we should try to continue or stop for a while. There's not really any multiplication practice included- I guess it's assumed you'll do that on your own.