I keep seeing references to Life of Fred math on the forum. Can those who are familiar with it share their experiences? I am trying to make decisions on curriculum for my 9th and 12th graders for this year. I am intrigued by the lof website(polka dot publishing). Is this really good for hs math?? Thanks and God Bless~ Donna
We love it! This is our first year using it and it is completely unconventional from the average math text. The book is written in a reading book style and has chapters. The whole book is about Fred's life. What I love about the book is that it teaches how to apply the math to daily life. In this case, Fred's life. The author is a PhD and basically says, and I agree, that math doesn't have to be traditional or boring. Some people just accept math texts as boring and assume this is just the way it is. The author taught in a public high school and a university. He was amazed that most of the students operated mechanically but knew nothing as to the why of each problem. He says, and I agree again, that most math publishers take the lemon, try to make lemonade but forget to add the sugar. ...and the price is unbeatable. It is $19.00 total. I have called the author before and he is very kind and willing to help however he can. He isn't out to make a huge profit, he is out to help students learn to love math. Granted, there will always be those who do not care for the book, but we love it.
We love it too!! I read reviews on it and decided last year to switch my 8th grader from Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1 - to Fred's Beginning Algebra. My son loved it so much he did 9 lessons one day!! The story that goes along with the math is hilarious. But the level of math is excellent. My kids do the American Math Contest each year. Many kids in our homeschool group do it and I have never seen a student increase by more than 3 points from one year to the next - but my son went up 5 points after a few months of Fred! I am so convinced by the success my 8th grader has had that I have moved my 11th grader across too. He is currently reading through the Advanced Algebra as Fred covers a lot more than Teaching Textbooks, and then he'll do Trigonometry. My 4th grader is currently enjoying Fractions. She wasa desperate not to miss out! Meryl
Thanks SO MUCH! I might be trying it--they have a 30 day guarantee, so guess we can't lose! God Bless~ Donna
Almost everyone loves it.. and really we liked it too. We had a problem with it though. My oldest is not one to put effort into things, he looks for the easiest way out of everything... well the LOF books have the answers to the problems right there where you get them from for each chapter.. Garrett would just copy that answer, never even bother to read the questions and when it came to the Bridge sections he would either get lots wrong or wait till I wasn't looking and look for the answers in the back of the book. We made it to about chapter 5 and I shelved it then sold it. We are going with teaching textbooks from now on.
It is somewhat expensive if you buy it from the publisher. http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/11catofbooks.html You may able to get Used books cheaper on Amazon.
I bought mine from the publisher for $19 and that included shipping. I thought that was pretty inexpensive. Of course, I only purchased one book at the end of the year and I use it as a supplement. I suppose it all would depend on how fast you go through the book...it does go quickly.
Ava Rose brings up a good point. I wouldn't suggest using Life of Fred as the primary textbook ever. It is a great supplement though.
I also paid $19.00 for mine, from the publisher, and that also included shipping. We use Life of Fred as the primary textbook. Even in a compact book like Life of Fred, I find it teaches a lot and even covers ideas that the average math text doesn't.
I personally do not think it does because Life of Fred is sooo different in how it is written. With that said, although I do not use Life of Fred as a supplement, it is easy enough to supplement it if the parent didn't feel it covered enough.
My 2 high schoolers are using LOF as their primary textbook. I was really worried last year when my son did Beginning Algebra as it was so much thinner than Chalkdust or Teaching Textbooks or Videotext (we have tried all of those). So, as we already had Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1, I made my poor son do every test in TT as well as doing all Fred - to make sure everything was covered sufficiently. And he aced all the TT tests. And by the end of Beginning Algebra he had also covered about 1/3 of TT Algebra 2! And re the cost - Fred is less than 1/4 of the price of Teaching Textbooks, Chalkdust and Videotext. For the younger ages, Fractions and Percents are meant to be used as supplements, but the others were designed as full courses. I emailed the author repeatedly about this as my son will use Fred's Statitics - and once again it is so much thinner than the book my oldest daughter used. The author told me it was equal to the math in 2 college semester's courses. Meryl
