I've read good things about the Life of Fred books. Anyone over here use them? What books would be good for a soon to be 3rd grader and a 5th grader? My kids strengths are verbal, but both are good at math (especially the younger), so thought these might be good for something different for math.

Ooh - I just saw the LoF Elementary Physics book. Anyone have experience with that? DS10's favorite subject is science...

Check out this thread from last summer.
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/195981/1.html

Personally I don't like the books at all. My son would hate them. Why make something so simple as math complicated with so many words. The books are VERY Christian IMO and defiantly have an Christian agenda. And some of the math is of questionable mathematical accuracy. I've lost the link but you can read several of the books online to get a taste.

But many people seem to love the books including some on this board.

My daughter loves Fred -- we've only got the first three (Apples, Butterflies, and Cats), but she's getting Dogs for her birthday this weekend. I'm sure we'll work our way through them all.

We order from Horrible Ray's (Del Sol) books, just email him the order and when the book comes, send him a check. I love that there is still a business that works that way.

I have a couple of the books. The one on Fractions was my favorite for nailing that concept. LoF is a useful supplement but is not complete enough to stand alone.

My daughter had a couple of years of classes with these books and really didn't like them. She's very verbal and not as strong in math so it sounded like it would be good. The trouble for her is that the story was distracting from the actual math and she found it very hard to get around in the books... to look back to refresh herself on a topic or note important concepts. Everything is buried in the story. Plus the page layout is challenging.

I would say the books are polarizing and might be the kind of thing you want to try out for yourself.

Edited to add: that link just above has a longer review from me with similar content. I'm starting to repeat myself, sorry everyone!

Yes to this. Both my kids love LoF, but we don't use it as our primary curriculum right now. But I know kids who hate LoF, for various reasons. I don't think you can necessarily predict how it will go, so it's probably best to borrow from a friend or the library.

If you decide to purchase this book , my suggestion is you buy just 1 or 2 to figure out if you like it. My kid is mathy kid and he does not seem that into it. I 'am not very fond of these books either. I made the mistake of buying the first set of books given the great reviews everywhere and regretting the money spent. I should have just purchased a book or two to get a flavor

Our family enjoyed them, but not as a replacement to a regular math curriculum.

Sully,

Was that the Intro to Algebra with Biology or another title?

MIU