The Life of Fred

by Sue T.

The Life of Fred
Fractions (5th grade)
2009

I am so glad to actually find a review of The Life of Fred because for all its fantastic mathematical notions, people tend to skim over it when they're reviewing math curriculum. I have many praises of The Life of Fred, but at the end of the day, the three things that matter most are:

#1. IT'S FUN. Seriously. We can sit and read about Fred at the dinner table and EVERYONE is engaged. It's so fun, that it doesn't seem like work. As a matter of fact, that brings me to my second love of Fred.

#2. It's easy. For years, we've existed on the notion that math has to be hard, but who made that rule? Why must we torture our children before we'll award them credit in mathematics? The Life of Fred makes math enjoyable AND easy.

#3. It works. That's the rock bottom line. After doing Fractions for four months, my children could navigate virtually every fraction website I could find, pass fractions quizzes I printed out and tested very well on their grade-level standard tests!

Life of Fred Fractions

Product: Life of Fred Fractions
Subject: Math
Levels Used: 6th grade
Dates Used: 2010

Likes: I thought the story line was great. Very unique, engaging, humorous...I was even getting into the book! It is reasonably priced and has great resell value.

Dislikes: To my disappointment, my son did not love it as much as I did. He is what I would call a 'mathy kid', and does have trouble with his current curriculum (Saxon). He thought the story line was 'ok' and didn't mind reading through most of it. He just didn't care to continue with the series, and preferred to use his regular math book.