Life of Fred

Ok who doesn't like Life of Fred?? lol! We love Fred around here. In fact, Life of Fred (LOF) did something neat for my oldest son... when he started reading Fred... it was like a lightbulb turned on in his brain and all avenues for learning and exploring were opened. <3 It's hard to explain but when you are a homeschool parent and a light bulb goes off... it's a magical thing, isn't it? 

Why I like Life of Fred: Because it's funny! Come on, have you read a Fred book to your kids lately? It's so entertaining!! It's soooo much better to be *forced* to read LOF to my kids than some of the other things they bring me sometimes...  And the amount of knowledge my kids get from these books is astounding! It's unreal how much my sons retain after a read. They will even take a long while to digest some concepts and start exploring them on their own! Like the time my seven year old got his tape measurer out and started measuring everything in the house! Even my small 3 year old will remember and learn things!! LOF is a series I will be saving for my grand kids someday. Also... LOF is inexpensive for the value it holds in my family.

Why my sons like Life of Fred: Seriously they love it! Fred doesn't even look like a "curriculum" to them. To them it's just a book! We read Fred at their leisure and enjoy it very much. My older son, in particular, has been completely influenced by the style of writing inside the Life of Fred books. He has started writing his own stories because of Fred and he has started READING on his OWN because of Fred. :) I waited and waited for that spark... and when he connected with Fred, it happened! :) Like I said above, magical! I know that some families out there get real serious with LOF and will do the chapters on schedule and things like that but we do not. For my kids, Fred is like a friend they can visit with whenever they want and play with for however long or short they want to. 

I highly highly highly recommend LOF and although you may see reviews on my site sometimes that I may do for incentives, this is not one of those cases. We simply love Life of Fred and I wanted to share it with you. :)

Life of Fred

Math Mammoth-Blue Series

We love Math Mammoth around here! So much that my son wants a stuffed mammoth for Christmas this year.. So much that he likes to color Mathy the Mammoth pictures all the time. (You can download a picture of Mathy on the Math Mammoth website. :) 

Why I like Math Mammoth - Blue Series: 

I like it because before I found it... I was lost. Math-wise lol. I looked up so, so many lists of standards and math subjects kid should learn and how and when to teach them.. my head was spinning. We tried to "school math" so much with too many curriculums. It was a math nightmare... Math almost did me in for homeschooling... I was ready to quit. Then I found this. Let me add really quickly, that Math Mammoth has grade level curriculums... but we do not use that. We use the blue series because it is by topic and skill level. Which is more important to us than grade level.  Anyway, I love this curriculum because it gives me confidence and a backbone behind my math guidance. ALSO this curriculum is so inexpensive!! It's truly a wonderful tool. At any time I can pull it out for a fresh perspective and I never feel bad when it's time to put it away for a while and do some math unschooling because it's cost does not keep me strapped. 

Why my sons like Math Mammoth - Blue Series: 

With this series of curriculum... my kids are in control of what they learn and when they learn it. If my son wants to learn about clocks today, we grab his clocks folder and go to town. We do some hands on activities with our big play clock and check the real clocks around the house for the time. Stuff like that. Then we do a few problems on whatever worksheet we are on until my son has had enough for the day. He is in control of it and this is how he wants to learn. It gives my older son the ability to compartmentalize his math. He likes that. It's comfortable for him. To him Math Mammoth is not a curriculum and it's not even mandatory. It's a tool for him. And he loves the way the author explains concepts to him while he's working. He has connected so well with this curriculum. I would say that before this curriculum appeared in our homeschool... he had zero math confidence. He spent a lot of Kindergarten in public school and then most of first grade de-schooling from that. So now in second grade, he is finding his learning feet and Math Mammoth has really helped him a lot. 

Math Mammoth - Blue Series

Have you used Math Mammoth in your homeschool? If so, I would love to hear about it! Math Mammoth is not the only math curriculum we use. We also love Life of Fred around these parts. :)

**Although I do sometimes receive incentives for my reviews... this was not one of those circumstances. :) We simply love Math Mammoth and I wanted to share. <3