Life of Fred – Elementary Series

Titles: Apples, Butterflies, Cats, Dogs, Edgewood, Farming, Goldfish, Honey, Ice Cream, Jelly Beans
Series: Life of Fred: Elementary
Author: Stanley F. Schmidt, Ph.D.
Publisher: Polka Dot Publishing
ISBNs: 9780979107245, 9780979107252, 9780979107269, 9780979107276, 9780979107283, 9780979107290, 9781937032005, 9781937032012, 9781937032029, 9781937032036

Mummy Angie’s Review

I have been hemming and hawing about having to write this review because I can’t seem to find enough time to just SIT and WRITE.  Distractions abound in this house and a review of curriculum takes oh so much longer than a review for a picture book.  In the meantime, Alethea has been sitting behind me hammering out her review of the Life of Fred pre-algebra books.  So here I am unashamedly using her review which you can read here as a springboard for my own review of the elementary level books of the Life of Fred series!  Clever, no?  🙂  Actually not quite, since she’s a tough act to follow.  Anyhow … here’s my review:

Our History with Math

First a short history of our love affair with Math.  Or mine at least.  I love math.  And have always wanted my children to love it as well.  We have used all sorts of Math curricula in the last 9 years of homeschooling – Singapore Math, Math U See, Right Start Math, Saxon Math.  One day we will get around to reviewing them all.  🙂  In school year 2011/2012, I switched the kids to Saxon Math because we were new-ish in Montreal and I planned to have them sit for the national Canadian Achievement Test at the end of the school year and wanted them to be prepared using a “standard” math curriculum.  They all did fabulously well on that test, so it was the right thing to do.  Then.

However, too many tears were shed that year, too much unhappiness, too much drudgery.  Daily drills, too many mundane and repetitive review questions and the last minute dash to finish what seemed like an endlessly tiresome curriculum.  Before the end of the year, I knew I had to do something different in order to rescue Math in our homeschool.

Enter … Life of Fred

I already owned the pre-algebra level Life of Fred books and it was easy for me to pull them out and start the older two on them during the summer break of 2012.  It was too ridiculously fun!  You would not believe this was a real math curriculum if you were sitting at our dining table during school.  There are numerous calls of, “Mom, can I read this to you?  Just one thing?  Please?” followed by laughter and the older ones who had already finished that level chiming in, “Yes, I remember that one, ha ha ha.”

So I ordered the Life of Fred Elementary Series books and had a kind friend drive them up to me from Michigan so I wouldn’t have to pay shipping charges.  *grin*  I told Tim he could start with the later books in the series, but he wanted to start right at the beginning with Apples!  Yes, it was THAT fun and he didn’t want to miss any of it.

How We Used It

Nathalie, who was just starting Grade 3, did about three lessons a day at first starting with Apples, then two lessons a day, then just one lesson a day as she began to find her level in the series.  She ended the school year in the middle of the last of the ten books.

Tim was just starting Grade 5 when we started using Life of Fred, and he moved through the first few books at the rate of one book every two days, then slowed down a little toward the end of the series.  He then moved on to the pre-algebra books, completing fractions, decimals and percents, and starting on pre-algebra 1.

Alethea was just starting Grade 7, so she skipped the Elementary Series altogether (except for reading some for leisure), and worked instead on the four pre-algebra books, which she completed and started on Beginning Algebra toward the end of the year.

Do We Like It?

Ya bet cha!  🙂  Life of Fred has revitalised us in the Math department.  The kids are happy again, and they are learning so much without ever thinking it’s a chore.  Are there tears?  Yes, when a child doesn’t cross “The Bridge” which is a review every five lessons or so and has to to the second bridge the next day, there is some unhappiness, but it is bearable.  🙂

My favourite features of the curriculum are:

• the books are written directly to the child.  The author makes it plain in the introduction that he expects children to learn to learn on their own, so parents are told (politely) to stay out of it.  Suits me just fine!
• the lessons show how math is used in the everyday.  This is SO valuable for children to understand.  All the math curricula we have used make math just a subject – something to learn, something to memorise, but fall flat in making it relevant to life.  Which is probably why so many students find math boring.
• the curriculum teaches so much more than just math.  The kids have learnt English, science, history, geography, and lots of things that don’t fit into any subject category.  Reading Life of Fred is like having someone really passionate about life in general talk to you.
• the author helps kids develop number sense.  For example, he asks the question, “How many jars of honey would Fred have to sell in order to make $1,254.  He makes a profit of $3 per jar.” Before the student has time to balk at the large number, he chimes in, “If he wanted to make $6, we would have 6 / 3 = 2” (written in long division format).  Then he goes on to ask the question, “If each jar of honey weighed 482 grams, how many grams would 57 jars weigh?” but then adds, “Would you add, subtract, multiply, or divide in this problem?  You are not being asked to solve the problem!”  In this way, I have found that my kids have no fear of large numbers in problems, having learnt that it is more important to first understand what method one should use to solve the problem.
• the curriculum appeals to our very family because of it’s story-based style.  The stories and the math questions are engaging and not twaddle.

[Aside: Alethea and I both used the word “twaddle” in our review and it may need some explaining.  Twaddle in homeschooling is anything, whether a book or an activity which is “dumbed down” or silly, or done for the sake of having something to do.  It varies from family to family depending on your appetite for such things.  As a general rule in this house, if we read something and roll our eyes, it’s twaddle.

Here’s a tongue-in-cheek example of twaddle from Ice Cream:

Fred then showed them his honey cards that he had invented.  He said that it was the easiest way to learn the multiplication tables.  Alexander asked, “Why do you call them honey cards?  I thought they were called flash cards.”  Fred explained that today in Sunday School, they were studying honey, and they learned how to cut up a piece of paper into eight little rectangles.  Alexander asked again, “But what has that got to do with honey?”  Fred explained, “Carrie, our Sunday School teacher, had us draw pictures of bees on the little rectangles.  And bees make honey.  And then we had honey during snack time.  She put the honey on graham crackers.  I didn’t eat mine because I wasn’t very hungry.  Oh, and we also learned that bees can make their hives in the ground or in the bodies of dead animals.”  Betty had to remind herself that this was Sunday School for five-year-olds.  Maybe they would get a little deeper into theology next year.  (Theology = study of God)]

But (HORRORS! There is a BUT!) …

There is only one thing I found lacking in Life of Fred.  DRILLS.  Yes, yes, I did hint that “drill & kill” programmes were not our thing, but there is the element of SPEED which is so much a part of math which paves the way for math at higher levels.

But no fear.  Being the curriculum junkie that I am, I already owned something to help in that department.  CALCULADDER.  These are simple, no-fuss timed math drill pages which you print off and have the student complete.  Each drill takes no more than 4 minutes to complete.  If they take longer than the specified time, they keep working on that same level till then get it down pat, then move on to the next level.  I have found it an invaluable supplementary resource that takes less than 10 minutes each day for us all to set up and complete.

SO …

All in all, Life of Fred is an excellent Math curriculum.  We use it as a main curriculum with Calculadder on the side, but I have homeschool friends who use it as a supplement, spending a week each day, say Friday, doing it instead of their regular programme.

Since we bought the Elementary Series a year ago, Stanley Schmidt the creator of the series has come up with three more books called the “intermediate series” which comes after the first ten elementary books and before pre-algebra.  I will be getting those for Nathalie this year as she starts Grade 4.

I certainly hope you will check the books out yourself.  Go to www.stanleyschmidt.com.  Enjoy!

Life of Fred Pre-Algebra Course

Titles: Fractions, Decimals and Percents, Pre-Algebra 1 with Biology, Pre-Algebra 2 with Economics
Author: Stanley F. Schmidt
Publisher: Polka Dot Press
ISBNs: 9780970999597, 9780979107207, 9780979107221, 9780979107238

Alethea’s Review (at age 12)

Math. The bane of the average kid’s life, whether homeschooled or schooled. You’re tired of endless drills. You have no idea how to find inverse functions. Enter Fred Gauss. He’s a five year old math teacher at KITTENS University, Kansas. He teaches fractions, decimals, percents, algebra, and more to college-aged students.

One day with him and you will learn about KITTENS University’s football field, robots, the C.C. Coalback Toy Store, and—whaddya know—even the inverse functions you were stressing over five minutes ago.

Once you discover Fred, you will never be bored out of your wits in math class again. Each lesson contains a continuation of Fred’s story, a math concept woven into Fred’s everyday life, and a Your Turn to Play: basically questions for you to answer. The best part about the questions is that while there are enough to get you to understand the concept, some of the questions are completely unrelated to the math part, thus making even the Your Turn to Play great fun.

Here’s an example … “A question for English majors: Suppose you wanted to say that the digit 9 followed by a decimal point is the same as a plain 9 without a decimal point. You write something like 9. is the same as 9. To my eye, that seems a bit strange. Or, once, when I was in high school, I wrote in an essay the sentence: Rocky owed Sylvia $2.. The first dot was for the decimal, and the second dot was the period. The teacher marked it wrong.  Okay, English majors, here is your multiple-choice question: Is English harder than math? Here are your choices: ☐yes or ☐yes.”)

Sometimes, during the narrative or during the Your Turn to Play answers, Schmidt adds some complaints or comments from you, the reader, in bold. The exchanges are hilarious, and often serve to introduce a math concept.

(“Hey! Forget that nonsense about having to wait! I want it now. Now! Do you hear me?

But this is a pre-algebra book. No author ever presents Heron’s formula at this level. It would drive the readers crazy.

I’m already crazy. Give me Hero’s formula—or else!“)

Once every five-ish or ten-ish lessons, there is what Schmidt calls a Bridge—that is to say, ten questions which test whether you have been paying attention to what the lessons have been about so far. These are often as funny as the lessons themselves (“If a bowl of ice cream weighs 992.3 grams, and Billy Bug ate one-millionth of that, how much did he eat?”), but while doing them, you really need to know how the math works.

If you get nine or more questions right, you can pass the bridge. However, if you don’t, do not fear—Schmidt has kindly provided us with five tries for the Bridge, all with different questions. At the end, there is what is called the Final Bridge—like the Bridge, but with twenty questions instead of ten.

The first two books (Fractions and Decimals and Percents) deal with only math (and some random questions), but the two Pre-Algebra books are quite interesting. Instead of teaching just math in Pre-Algebra 1 with Biology, Schmidt adds quite a bit of biology (in fact, there’s a whole chapter about eyelashes and jeans—I mean, genes). In Pre-Algebra 2 with Economics, Schmidt teaches about opportunity costs and minimum wage laws. This isn’t what you find in your typical math book, but then again, neither do you find a five-year-old professor who never gets hungry and who sells hot dogs. Interestingly, instead of boring me, the biology and economics actually made the book more interesting—it wasn’t just math and math drills.

How We Used This

We’ve used Life of Fred for one school year, and this is how we used it: If we felt that the book we were currently doing was below our level, we’d do two or more lessons per day. If not, we’d just do one. We usually treat the Bridge like a lesson. I think that’s a pretty good way to do it, because in this one school year, I’ve finished this entire series—that is, Fractions, Decimals and Percents, Pre-Algebra 1 with Biology, and Pre-Algebra 2 with Economics.

Do I like this course? Of course (no pun intended). Fred is, amazingly, amusing and educational at the same time—hard to achieve, I can imagine. Fred is a likeable hero, who knows a lot and still manages to get into laugh-inducing situations. Schmidt is a great writer and mathematician (though, if I’m not wrong, I did spot one or two typos). Fred’s life shows exactly how math is used in everyday situations—something which I admit I’d never really thought of. But you know what the best part of these books are? They’re written from a Christian point of view, and that is obvious throughout the book. Also, Schmidt does write for children, but he doesn’t write twaddle (which is nice, for a change).

Very recommended. For higher elementary and lower secondary students. (For lower elementary students, there’s another series or two.)

Warning: Though the third book may be a sorta biology book, don’t worry, parents. Fred’s very clean, and the only problems I can think of is Fred dropping a knife on his foot, in I forget which book, and a mention of Sigmund Fred in Pre-Algebra 2. As I’ve already said, it’s from a Christian point of view, so stop fretting.

The Toothpaste Millionaire

Title: The Toothpaste Millionaire
Author: Jean Merrill
Illustrator: Jan Palmer
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
ISBN: 9780618759255

Alethea’s Review (at age 12)

A lot of customers seemed surprised at the idea of a toothpaste in a jar. It seemed a little strange.
“It’s like peanut butter coming in a tube,” I told Rufus.
Rufus’s reaction was “Why don’t they put peanut butter in tubes? You wouldn’t need a knife to spread it.”
Chapter 9

By the time Rufus Mayflower becomes an eight-grader, he will have over one million dollars in the bank, and it all started with a simple trip to the store. Complaining to his new friend, Kate MacKinstrey, that toothpaste was far too expensive, he bet he could make a whole gallon of it for the same price as a regular tube. And he did. With a lot of help from Kate, Rufus managed to go from normal sixth-grader to millionaire with employees, stockholders, and toothpaste factory. And he still wears that “same old blue sweater.”

This is a very easy, very funny book about a normal kid who makes his way in the world. Simple words and large font make this book a great read for younger kids. It also has a captivating plot, which even I would not hesitate to read. It is narrated from Kate’s point of view, which helps us identify with the characters more, as well as enabling us to understand the working of a business from a kid’s point of view.

Recommended for lower elementary students, or even younger kids if they have a sufficient attention span.

Warning: One of the themes in this book seems to be racism (and overcoming it), as it’s set in the nineteen-sixties. On the first page, there’s this sentence: “First, I’ll tell you how Rufus and I got to be such good friends, since I’m white and he’s black, and this seems to surprise some people.” This doesn’t bother me, but it might bother others. 

One Woolly Wombat

Title: One Woolly Wombat
Author: Kerry Argent
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 9781862917095

Daniel’s Review (at age 4)

This is a counting book.  I counted koalas and emus and platypuses.  I liked the picture of the goannas because they look like crocodiles.  I also liked the flying kookaburras.

Mummy Angie’s Review

This is a simple rhyming counting book which features various Australian animals.  The illustrations are detailed and eye-catching and feature animals doing funny things like dingoes playing the yo-yo and cockatoos counting.  We bought this while on holiday in Australia and was pleasantly surprised to find it was autographed.  🙂  Ah … life’s simple joys.

Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday

Title: Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday
Author: Judith Viorst
Illustrator: Ray Cruz
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780689711992

Timothy’s Review (at age 10)

“It isn’t fair that my brother Anthony has $2 and 3 quarters and 1 dime and 7 nickels and 18 pennies. It isn’t fair that my brother Nicholas has $1 and 2 quarters and 5 dimes and 5 nickels and 13 pennies. it isn’t fair because what I’ve got is… bus tokens.”

Alexander has a problem. Whenever he has ANY money, he knows that soon, he’ll only have… bus tokens. He also has two mean brothers and parents who would rather believe his brothers than him (or so it seems). It all started when his grandparents came and guess what they brought. MONEY!!!!!!!! What he does with it, it’s up to you to find out.

This book is sort of like a math book, but it’s fun and that’s something you don’t see everyday.  I counted along to see where his money went.

Five In A Row: Unit Studies Curriculum

Titles: Before Five In A Row, Five in a Row Volume 1, Five in a Row Volume 2, Five in a Row Volume 3
Author: Jane Claire Lambert
Publisher: Five in a Row Publishing
ISBN: 9781888659047, 9781888659009, 9781888659016, 9781888659023

Mummy Angie’s Review

Before Five In A Row is a learning readiness programme for ages 2 to 4. It was released after the success of the original Five in a Row series which is a Unit Studies curriculum for ages 4 to 8. Then the author’s daughter created the Beyond Five In A Row series for ages 8 to 12.

Of the manuals, we have the one for Before Five in a Row (strangely enough, I have two copies of this), and Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of the Five in a Row series. Of the books, we own every one of the books in the series (from Before FIAR to Volume 4) which is in print and a few which are out of print.

How it Works

Here’s how the programme works. There is a manual which lists activities that go along with a book list. Each manual covers about 20 books, give or take a few. The books you need to either buy or borrow. You pick a book from the list and linger over it for five days. Hence the title. Each day you pick from the activities described in the manual. The activities and lessons fall under the following categories:

1. Social Studies – includes geography, history, societal issues, people relationships, character development
2. Language – includes vocabulary, literary devices, drama, composition, list-making
3. Art – appreciating art, understanding different mediums, imitating      illustrations and techniques
4. Math – practical math lessons, counting, time, measuring, money
5. Science – a great variety of lessons in this section.

There is also an accompanying cookbook, a holiday guide and other resources to supplement the curriculum.

The BEFORE Five in a Row programme doesn’t work the same way. It is a “learning readiness” programme and honestly who are we trying to kid … it’s for ages TWO to FOUR! This is not a hot-housing programme. 🙂 The activities that are listed cover Bible, art, science, animal classification, physical development, and provide tips and information about things in the book which may have escaped your notice. In addition, there is a section at the back of the book which lists various developmentally appropriate ideas for this age group – coordination, what to do in the store, ideas for bathtime activities, various art and craft suggestions, etc.

My Review

I have used this curriculum VERY loosely. (I use most things this way. :)) We love and treasure many of the titles in the series, I have acquired some of the out of print titles at ridiculous prices, and have rejoiced when Purple House Press started bringing some of those impossible-to-get titles back into print.

I have found many of the ideas from the BEFORE Five in a Row manual to be great “extension” activities to do after reading the book. Like looking for various animals in Goodnight Moon, or acting out We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, going for a nature walk after reading Play With Me. Of course by exercising a little brain power, I could have quite easily figured out these things myself. Not rocket science. But I’m not much of an activity person and I appreciated having these suggested to me in the manual.

The Five in a Row books were something I looked forward to reading with our children. But I never did a full FIVE IN A ROW study, complete with reading the book five days in a row then doing different activities each day. I would read the manual occasionally and recall the lessons as we read the book. But nothing formal. ONCE we tried our hand at doing a lapbook (which is a favourite among Five in a Row users), but it completely wiped me out (I’m so not an activity person) that I vowed never to do it again. If you are so inclined, though, I highly recommend you check out www.homeschoolshare.com. There you will find many extension activities as well as prepared templates for lapbooks for the various Five in a Row titles.

Together with some other moms, we used the Five in a Row studies in a homeschool co-op we ran for a number of years from our home. Every week a mom would prepare a couple of activities to do with the children, and if the story was set in a particular country, we would make food from that country for lunch that day! Yes, it was elaborate, but we had such a good time doing it. 🙂 But the children’s exposure to the book would be just on that one day. Still, the manual gave us an easy way to come up with various activities to do.

Overall, I highly recommend reading the books in the book list. They are lovely books, some really high quality children’s literature and reading them will help you in your selection of other wonderful books to read to your children. I have managed to get a good number from the public libraries in Singapore, though sometimes that involved placing a reservation or asking for a transfer to a nearby library.

As for the activities in the manual, there were some wonderful activities the author points out which I would have otherwise missed, or things in the science section that are researched for you already so you don’t have to do the background work. There were also lists of vocabulary words I could refer to if I needed a definition pronto and didn’t want to look it up. Also if you read through all (or even most) of the books, your child would have encountered stories from various countries around the world. Till today my kids still remember the countries the various stories were set in and recall them with fondness. I didn’t use the math activities because I thought most of them were just silly. Honest review. 🙂 And really stretching it just to find an activity to fit under the heading MATH. And though we talked about some of the art pointers from the book, we never did any of the activities. My personality gets in the way.

However, there are now many other similar programmes out there, and many homeschool sites which offer suggested activities to go with various children’s picture book titles. So if you are just starting out and are not ready to splurge on the manuals, you may want to check out sites like www.homeschoolshare.com or do a google search with words like “unit study” and “picture book” and “five in a row” and check out what comes up. But if you are loath to go online every time you need an idea, then by all means buy yourself a copy of Five in a Row Volume 1 to check out. Or borrow one.

[Note to Canadian homeschoolers: there is a very similar programme in Canada titled Come Sit By Me which uses Canadian books.]

Mice Twice

Title: Mice Twice
Author: Joseph Low
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780689878329

Nathalie’s Review (at age 8)

One day Cat invites Mouse for tea, but actually he wants to eat her.  Mouse says she will go and will bring a friend.  So Cat thinks, “Mice Twice.”  But Mouse brings Dog so Cat can’t eat Mouse.  And the next day, Cat brings Wolf to Dog’s house, hoping to eat both Dog and Mouse but beside Dog was Crocodile.

While I was reading this book for the first time, I thought, “Poor Mouse.”  But then when I figured out that Cat didn’t have a chance to eat Mouse, then I was happy again.  🙂  I found the book both funny and a bit scary because I thought that some animals would be eaten up.  But when I first saw this book, I didn’t see Mouse in the tree, so I thought it had to be a boy mouse, but it turned out to be a girl.  I found the end very funny.

Mummy Angie’s Review

A cute little book about Mouse outwitting Cat, and an easy introduction to the math concept of doubling.  Cat thinks he is going to have both Mouse and her friend for tea, so MICE TWICE.  But then Dog appears and he is TWICE as big as Cat.  In retaliation, Cat brings Wolf to Dog’s house, and Wolf is TWICE as big as Dog but FOUR TIMES as fierce.  Also references to time.  The animals agree to meet at 6 o’clock, 7 o’clock and 8 o’clock.

The Man Who Counted

Title: The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematicsl Adventures
Author: Malba Tahan
Translated by: Leslie Clark and Alastair Reid
Illustrated by: Patricia Reid Baquero
Publisher: W.W. Norton
ISBN: 9780393309348

Timothy’s Review (at age 10)

This is the story of a man named Hanak Tade Maia and his travelling companion Beremiz Samir, aka The Man Who Counted.  Beremiz has amazing mathematical powers because when he was very young, he started working as a shepherd for a rich man, and grew so afraid of losing a lamb that he counted the whole flock a few times a day.  He became so good at it that he could sometimes count the whole flock correctly at a glance.  In their travels, Beremiz solves seemingly impossible mathematical riddles and is able to turn anything into math and see geometry everywhere.

In a typical chapter, they meet with someone who has a problem, or is just confused.  And Beremiz helps them figure it out.  There is always a catch to the story, however, and Beremiz takes advantage of the problem and makes it serve his purposes, without making other people feel cheated.

My favourite mathematic puzzle was the one called “The Four Fours”.  In this, he proves that you can make any number from one to ten just by using four 4’s.

1 = 44/44
2 = 4/4 + 4/4
3 =(4+4+4)/4
4 = 4+(4-4)/4

If you want to see the rest, buy the book!  🙂

The Warlord Series

Title: The Warlord’s Fish, The Warlord’s Puppeteers, The Warlord’s Kites, The Warlord’s Messengers, The Warlord’s Alarm
Author: Virginia Walton Pilegard
Illustrator: Nicolas Debon
Series: The Warlord Series
ISBN: 9781565549647, 9781589800779, 9781589801806, 9781589802711, 9781589803787

Timothy’s Review (at age 10)

This is a great series if you’re looking for something that is fun to read and yet informative.  The series is about an artist, his apprentice, a puppeteer and his daughter and their adventures.  In the book “The Warlord’s Fish”, the artist and his apprentice are kidnapped by traders who believe that they have been tricked.  They are taken out into the desert and lose their way, but the apprentice had brought his master’s wooden fish that always pointed south.  With the help of the fish they find their way to the last oasis and are set free.  All of the books are like this, with a crisis happening and the apprentice and/or the puppeteer’s daughter saving the day.  At the end of each book, there is an activity such as how to make a windsock, or how to make your own compass, like in “The Warlord’s Fish”.  This is my favorite math and science series. I really enjoyed it, and I think you will too.

Mummy Angie’s Notes

These books are set in Ancient China.  The Warlord’s Alarm is about the Chinese Water Clock, The Warlord’s Kites about kite making, The Warlord’s Fish about the compass, The Warlord’s Puppeteers about ratios and puppet-making, and The Warlord’s Messengers about wind-driven landcrafts and the windsock.  The series actually starts with two other titles, The Warlord’s Puzzle and The Warlord’s Beads, but for some unknown reason we don’t own them.