Resource Description
Life of Fred, written by Stanley F. Schmidt, Ph.D., is a series of math books that are based on the story of 5 year old math genius Fred Gauss. Once children have mastered addition, subtraction and the multipication tables, they are ready to begin using Life of Fred, which carries the student from fractions through two years of calculus and beyond.
"In one of the Life of Fred books, Fred Gauss was born on the western slopes of the Siberian mountains. By the end of the eleven books, he is six years old. In his everyday life he first encounters the need for each new part of mathematics, and then comes the mathematics. Never again will students have to ask their perennial question: 'When are we ever gonna use this stuff?'"
Website: Life of Fred Math (may contain affiliate links)
(26 Reviews)
Before investing in any homeschooling resources, please read "How to Choose the Best Homeschool Curriculum."
Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Cons: you have to prepare your own arithmetic drills
Grades Used: 1st-7th
I can not rave enough about Life of Fred. My children and I absolutely adore these books. I agree with previous reviews in that the only problem I have is getting them to stop or slow down. I have to let the lessons kind of sink in at times or practice, but they just want to read more. The lessons are short but thorough, getting longer as they advance of course. The books are very high quality and meant to be used over and over with the work being done on separate paper not written in the book.
I believe Life of Fred is a complete program if you use the books as intended with plenty of arithmetic drills and possibly flash cards. I do supplement a bit with grade level workbooks such as Mastering the Standards just to ensure the children meet our exceed expectations for their grade level in math and arithmetic, but I have never found them to fall behind at all.
The elementary books are fun to do, we all love the story, and they get plenty of ideas about how math is used and how they may use it in the future. The elementary ages do require a bit of extra practice or drill however. Once you reach the larger books such as fractions or decimals, the program gets even better! We are now into pre-algebra and elementary physics. My oldest was so worried about moving into something with the word 'algebra' in it, but after chapter one she knew she was ready. Fred has helped her feel confident as math gets more difficult, and that goes a long way.
WE LOVE LIFE OF FRED!
Cons: Lack of practice
Grades Used: Apples-Edgewood, Elem. Physics and both Pre-Alg.
The kids love it. It is written as a story, so if we don't read out of the books for a day or so, we have to go back to be reminded of happened to Fred. Fred is a dinner table conversation, almost everyday. With four kids reading Fred, they all have something different to share.
I do supplement with other practice math. The kids fly through the Bridges, but when asked to perform same material in more structured application (state testing style) there are some struggles.
We will continue to use LOF, because the kids still love it.
Cons: It's hard to get the kids to stop
Grades Used: k, 2, 6
We've been using Life of Fred math for a couple of months now. What a difference! Instead of daily struggles about math with my sixth grader, now I have to pry all of my kids away from math. They love it.
They all love to read anyway, and this way of learning just makes sense to them.
My husband and I like that at the middle school level, the responsibility for learning is placed on the student - not the parent. We still check the bridges for our son, and if he struggles with any concepts we review them together. Other than that, he goes up to do his Fred lesson on his own.
For my younger two, we do as the author suggests, and cuddle up together to do math. I disagree with another viewer that it's not a complete program - it's very thorough. I find everyday opportunities to reinforce what they've learned. They love that the author doesn't talk down to them. He accepts that children are intelligent and interested in learning. My biggest 'problem' is that we're covering the material so fast. I've already explained to my second grader that we'll have to go back and re-do some books until she's old enough for middle school math.
Cons: Not enough practice.
Grades Used: Apples (1st book)
I tried a straight forward, dry traditional math curriculum with my daughter and she hated it. Life of Fred was suggested to me and she has loved every second of it. It almost teaches her concepts without her realizing she is learning anything. It is very, very enjoyable. We laugh and learn with Fred. It is a really unique learning experience and won't be for everyone. Still, I highly recommend it.
I felt that the practice problems at the end of the chapter did not offer enough practice of the concepts either introduced or reinforced and I bought a workbook (unrelated) to reinforce concepts she's learning with Fred.
Cons: Not enough explanation
Grades Used: 5th (Fractions)
My daughter hated it. It is supposed to be a fully independent curriculum and she refused to do it on her own. I think in some ways the format confused her. She prefers straight up math. She moved through it well, but we gave up on it since she just didn't take to it and it made more work for me.
Cons: No teacher's manual; no extra practice in pre-high school levels
Grades Used: 6th
We got Life of Fred Fractions this year for our math-phobic child. I was hoping that the living math approach would work for her, and it really has! She LOVES her LOF book and will even read ahead in the story. I love that she is supposed to work through it independently and only come to me when she can't figure something out. She and I have never done well together with math, and Fred has really built up her confidence. My only issue is that I wish we had a book of extra problems, like they have for the high school levels. She seems to have a hard time getting things into her long-term memory and I believe extra problems would help her with that.
Cons: "feels" light - but probably getting more than we realize
Grades Used: 1st
We just started using the Life of Fred this year with the "Apples" book, the first in the series for elementary math. It feels "light" if you will, that we aren't learning a lot, but I think I'm probably just not used to the concept of learning math in this way.
Set up in story form, we utilize it as a supplement to our full curriculum and my daughter always asks for more. We got through it quickly and are ready for the next book.
The story is silly, but the kids love it and don't mind. It is probably easy enough for her to read herself as a 1st grade reader but to retain the math I read it to her. She likes that. She likes that the answers are on the next page and it challenges you to do some other areas other than math (ie reviewing days of the weeks, months of the year).
It's great and we plan to continue with the series as a supplement to our regular math curriculum.
Grades Used: 6th & 9th
We started out our year using Life of Fred for our 6th grader and 9th grader. The stories are silly and fun, the girls enjoyed them but had difficulty with the lessons. There is not enough explanation or examples and when I would sit with them to help them I would have to read the chapter instead of just looking at what is being taught and being able to explain it. I also felt that the concepts were not dealt with long enough to give the student a good grasp. We switched to another curriculum before finishing the books. I would not recommend them.
Cons: can't think of any
Grades Used: 7+
We found life of Fred last year and my daughter did fractions and decimals and percents. This year she is doing Algebra 1. In her words " I don't really get ANY math, but it's way better than saxon!" My son is working his way through them now and loves the conversational style and explanations of real math. I would recommend these for those who struggle with math, at the very least my kids have relaxed and started to enjoy it!
My 8 & 6 year old boys look forward to Fred & Kingie stories! It shows how we use math everyday...counting steps, counting stars, time. It has SO many hidden treasures that could easily be skipped over if one goes too fast with their studies (typical just trying to get through....well, stop & smell the Fred ROSES!)
Just a fun, quirky & full of random information book- including MATH!!!