Curriculum Review: Life of Fred Elementary Math
Today I wanted to take some time to review one of our favorite curriculums – Life of Fred!
Math was my least favorite subject growing up. I was homeschooled from the middle of third grade all the way to the end of high school and our math curriculum was usually Saxon math. If you were homeschooled, you probably have some form of loathing to this day toward Saxon 😜 One of my biggest goals in homeschooling was to find some way to make math fun.
While I haven’t been entirely successful with that (math doesn’t come as naturally to Claire as some of her other subjects), Life of Fred has really helped! It’s the only math curriculum she has never complained about and actually begged to keep going! We used it all through second grade (and part of first) and are planning to continue using it!
(This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you purchase a product from a link on this page. To read more about this, check out our disclosure page here. Thanks for supporting Beautiful Minutiae!)
What is Life of Fred?
Life of Fred is a math curriculum that is written like a story. It tells the story of Fred, a 5 year old math professor at KITTENS University in Kansas. He’s absolutely brilliant, but being only 5 years old, he gets into quite a few silly scrapes.
Each chapter has math concepts that it introduces or reinforces from previous chapters. At the end of each chapter is a section entitled “Your Turn to Play!” This has some practice problems based on the concepts being learned. In the books we’ve used so far, there are around 3-6 practice problems. Sometimes there is a row of additional practice problems.
Who is Life of Fred for?
Life of Fred starts in elementary school and continues all the way through high school. We have only purchased the elementary set, so that’s what I’m specifically reviewing here, though I’ve heard many wonderful things about the upper books as well.
Also noteworthy is that Life of Fred has some religious references in it. It’s not pervasive by any means, but if you’re looking for an entirely secular curriculum, this is not.Â
Pro's of Life of Fred
Probably the biggest pro of this curriculum is how fun it is! It uses story to teach math concepts and skills. Claire always begs for another chapter, because she wants to see what happens to Fred next. Once we’ve finished a book, it’s pretty typical for Claire to read them over and over again just for fun. My favorite part of this is that she doesn’t realize she’s reinforcing math concepts at the same time 😉
While this is a math curriculum, it’s also fun to see how many other subjects are interwoven into the story. My daughter learned a lot about constellations in Life of Fred Butterflies, for example.Â
Another huge perk is that these books are non-consumable. They are hardcover, well made books. Students are encouraged to keep a separate notebook to write the answers to the practice problems in. In fact, there really isn’t any space to write any answers within the book at all. This is wonderful if you have multiple children who would be using these books or if you wanted to resell them afterwards.
If you wanted to check out the books before purchasing, a lot of libraries carry these books. We were able to get Apples through interlibrary loan and complete most of the book before returning. At that point, we loved it so much that I just decided to go ahead and purchase the entire set. We’ve completed 5 of the 10 books and loved every single one so far!
Cons of Life of Fred
While many people use Life of Fred exclusively, we didn’t feel like it was enough on its own. There aren’t a lot of practice problems and it seems that some concepts are taught quickly without a lot of review. However, there is a Facebook group that has lists of additional practice problems for each chapter of the books, so you could always supplement with those or a workbook. By the time I found out about the group, I had already purchased Math Mammoth, so I decided to continue to use that in conjunction with Life of Fred.
All of the answer keys are on the other side of the page with practice problems. While it’s convenient to not have an additional book with answers, if your child is working through these books independently, they may be tempted to cheat. Currently, I read the chapters aloud and we do the problems together, so that hasn’t been an issue for us yet. Of course, if you’re using anything else to assess where they are in math (other curriculums or testing), you’ll quickly realize whether or not they’re grasping concepts or just copying answers, but it’s just something to keep in mind.
That’s it for this review! There are a lot more pros than cons, because I honestly love this curriculum! What do you like to use for math in your home? I’d love to chat in the comments below!
Also, if there are any other curriculums I have mentioned in the past that you like me to review, please let me know! I love sharing our experiences with homeschooling and chatting curriculum.
2 Comments
Jenn
My 6.5 and 4.5 yo love listening to Life of Fred! I use it as part of our morning basket. 6.5 verbally answers the questions, since it is just supplemental. 4.5 likes to draw some of the pictures Fred draws. We use Singapore Math as our main curriculum and the occasional dabble with Miquon.
admin
Yes, Life of Fred is so fun for kids to listen to! My daughter preferred answering verbally for a while, because writing was difficult and frustrating for her. I love how easy Life of Fred makes that 😊