Life of Fred - Review
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Today I am sharing about the Life of Fred Elementary Math Curriculum! I have heard so many good things about it and was really excited when Educents reached out to me about trying it! As you may know, if you watch our Youtube channel, my oldest really doesn't care much for math. I think a lot of kids are that way, I know I was :)
Learning math in a way that is applicable to real life situations can be really beneficial for kids who don't love math, or have a hard time grasping different concepts.
That is where Life of Fred really fits in well to our curriculum choices. It's a series of books, written about a guy named Fred Gauss. Each chapter covers a different aspect of Fred's life, and the ways he encounters math in daily life! The stories are short and funny, and then at the end of each chapter your child answers a few questions to make sure they understood what they needed to from that lesson. It's really kind of genius, in my opinion. So many math curriculums just show your child a concept and then hope with repetition it will "stick". I think Life of Fred really works well to help my girls see ways in which they would actually apply that concept in everyday life!
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The series we have is the Elementary series (10 books ), which cover math up until the 4th grade. You can purchase the books individually, or in sets.
They recommend no matter grade level your child is (up to 4th grade) that they begin using the first book, Apples. That is what we are currently using.
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The best part for me is that I can read the story to both my first and third grader, then hand them each a pencil and paper, and they answer the questions at the end. From time to time I do have one of the girls read the story as well. Y'all know I love any kind of curriculum that can be done with multiple children! It really saves time for us mamas who are homeschooling a group of kiddos at one time.
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Since the books are not consumable, I can continue to use them for all my kids as they move up in grade levels, which is really nice! A one time purchase, that works for all my kids! If you are in a homeschool co-op, this would be a fun curriculum to use for lots of kids of varying ages too!
Here is an example of what concepts your kids are working on in the first book, Apples.
Numbers that Add to 7
Circles
Ellipses
Reading 6:00 on a Clock
5 + ? = 7
Days of the Week
Leap Years
Spelling February
15 Degrees Below Zero (–15º)
Counting by Fives
3x + 4x = 7x
ante meridiem (a.m.)
One Million
Squares
The "There Are Zero . . ." Game
Sets
the Popularity of Zero
Triangles
? (not equal)
x + 4 = 7
One Thousand
Counting by Hundreds
Reading 3:05 on a Clock
Rectangles
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I just can't say enough good things about Life of Fred, and I would honestly recommend it to anyone homeschooling, whether your kids are great at math, or not :) Anything we can do as parent's to make learning fun, is a win in my book!
Like I mentioned above, this product came from Educents, and they have TONS of other products I am hoping to try soon! The Life of Fred beginners reading series looks like a great way to introduce reading concepts to the boys (who are 4 and 2) and don't forget, if your kids are past 4th grade math, that the Life of Fred books come in an intermediate series too! The next product I plan to purchase is the Times Tales DVD, which helps your kiddos learn multiplication in a fun and engaging way! Let me know if you'd like to see a review of that product as well!
Be sure to head over to Educents.com and check out all the great products they offer!
***Disclaimer: Thank you so much to Educents for sponsoring this post, as always, my opinions and content are my own!