Life of Fred Language Arts Series: Australia

For The homeschool teachers out there, the Fred series are one of the best curriculums for reading and math. I highly recommend it you will not be disappointed.

I love Fred across the board but I'm afraid this won't be enough instruction to prepare a high schooler for college or even a ged. We're still using it but once we start school again this fall I think I'll look for something a bit more... More.

We love Life of Fred and this doesn't disappoint.

My 8th Grade son Loved it!

Some kids really get into Life of Fred, and I think it's a cool way to learn lots of interesting factoids. My son does not like it. It takes too much effort for him to be bothered, and as a result it's been shuffled aside. I think if it works for your child, it's great, and if it doesn't, it's just frustrating.

Cute book, and a fun way to learn Language Arts for a second grader. No way is this for high school.

I expected this book to help me to get my middle-school student to write. The problem is that this book is pitched to much younger kids, although the publisher claims it is for middle grades. I was disappointed.

I homeschool and have used the Life of Fred Elementary Math series since my oldest (now 8 and in 3rd grade) was in Kindergarten. We love that series, as it doesn't have the student complete endless math drills and covers so much more than just math. That being said, I was eager to check out the Language Art series.If you don't know anything about LoF, these books are not your typical textbook. The storyline follows a 5-year-old math professor named Fred. Each book finds Fred getting caught up in a new adventure/mishap/conundrum, etc. The chapters are in story form that incorporates the lesson/theme/topic and at the end of each chapter is a "Your Turn to Play (YTTP)," which is where the student answers questions regarding the lesson. Each YTTP (in this book) is 2-4 questions.The Life of Fred Language Art series is marketed as high school level. My daughter completed the Australia book in 2 weeks (at the time, being 7 and at a 2nd grade level). She requested that we complete 2-3 chapters a day. While I believe my daughter is brilliant (who doesn't think that about their child), I have to say, I recall much of the material presented in Australia was presented in my elementary school years.Some of the language arts topics covered: forming plurals, forming past tense, defining verbs, homonyms and heteronyms, punctuation (very basic: periods, commas, question marks, apostrophes, etc), letter writing (how to address an envelope, post scripts, salutations, etc), silent letters, that v which.A sample of the questions in the YTTP: 1. Draw a rectangle, pretending it is an envelope. How would you write the address? Where would the stamp go? 2. Fill in the word: one rabbit ---> two ________ 3. What is the homonym for "their?" This is not a complete list, but hopefully it gives an idea of the level of instruction.As usual for LoF, the author covers "non-language arts" topics in the book: Geography: Is Australia a continent or an island? Math: Breaking a cookie in half doesn't give you twice as much, rhombuses Health: How to keep your 32 adult teeth. Again, not a complete list.Overall, if this book was marketed to a 2nd-4th grade level, I would give it 5-stars for all you fellow LoF lovers out there. However, as marketed for high school, I just don't understand that being the appropriate age level for this content. I can't say if the other 3 books in the LA series are equally lower level or if the author just decided to use this first book as a basic review.