Your question: Do I need to supplement Fred?
The Life of Fred series is a complete math curriculum.
Because Life of Fred is so much fun, some readers might wonder if it is lightweight. The opposite is true.
The Life of Fred series has more mathematics in it than any other homeschooling series that I know of.
Of the "heavyweights" in the homeschooling world, Saxon is usually considered the 800-pound gorilla, but it is sadly lacking in its content. John Saxon doesn't seem to like to write English and can't get it together to write a geometry book including the concept of proof—which is the central theme of high school geometry. But even his algebra books are lacking. A couple of months ago I looked at his Alg 2 and compared it with Life of Fred: Advanced Algebra.
I counted a dozen major topics that he leaves out that Life of Fred: Advanced Algebra Expanded Edition includes:
1. Permutations
2. Matrices
3. Linear programming
4. Series
5. Sigma notation
6. Sequences
7. Combinations
8. Pascal's triangle
9. Math induction
10. Partial fractions---needed in calculus
11. Graphing in three dimensions
12. Change-of-base rule for logarithms
All these topics should be in any full presentation of second-year high school algebra.
It seems that the big scam for homeschool math publishers is to leave out topics. The result is:
i) The students don't realize the topics that aren't covered;
ii) The students finish the book more easily;
iii) Everything seems fine until they hit their SATs or upper division math courses. Then they find out the truth.
The other curricula are even more lacking than Saxon.
The Life of Fred series is a very complete mathematics education.
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