My daughter Louisa used to hate math. Then we discovered The Life of Fred and now she LOVES math! At first, I was highly suspicious as I listened to Louisa laugh through her math lessons and totally enjoy doing them. I was stunned to watch her go straight for math when she started her homeschool work each morning. I picked up the book and read an outlandish story about a miniature boy named Fred and all his adventures. I was impressed to say the least! How could a girl who hates math actually be enjoying? I contacted Stan Schmidt, the author of the Life of Fred, and a retired college math professor of 28 years whose self-proclaimed mission is to help kids love math. I asked him, "How do I know a student who does Life of Fred will retain it?," to which he replied, "How much of your school algebra did you retain?" Ouch! If you have a creative child who is languishing on traditional math programs, you'll love Life of Fred! Beware: This is not a traditional math book. This is a child-directed course. The student reads the adventure story, does the math problems that occur as a natural part of the story, and checks their answers (the solutions are right there for the looking.) And learns to love math in the process! (Compare to Saxon at $50-70) Contents: Points and Lines, Angles, Triangles, Parallel Lines, Perpendicular Lines, Quadrilaterals, Area, Geometry Theories, Similar Triangles, Symbolic Logic, Right Triangles, Circles, Constructions, Non-Euclidean Geometry, Solid Geometry, Geometry in 4D, Coordinate Geometry, and Modern Geometry. Hardcover, 542 pages.

Life of Fred: Geometry

Ph.D. Stanley F. Schmidt

Z-Twist Books

Fred's Home Companion--Advanced Algebra

Schmidt, Stanley F.

Life of Fred is a series of math books that break the old pattern of drill and kill. Instead of nothing but dry exposition and endless drill exercises, they contain fun stories about Fred Gauss, a child prodigy math genius. During his hilarious adventures, he encounters situations that call for solving math problems. Dr. Stanley Schmidt wrote these to make math come alive with humor, clear explanations, and silly illustrations that will make math a fun subject. Your children actually want to read these books. The stories carry on through the exercises, leading the student through them. Many of the books have a series of quizzes called Bridges every few chapters. Passing a quiz means the student is ready for the next chapter. Some books have all the problem solutions in them, while others have separate answer keys or companions. The textbooks are all hardbound, the answer keys are comb-bound.

Life of Fred--Butterflies

Stanley F. Schmidt. Ph.D.

The idea behind Life of Fred is that if students have an enjoyable experience and have fun doing their math, they will remember it and use it and have a good taste in their math about the whole subject. The sub-title on each of his math books is "As Serious As it Needs to Be". And that is just the point: math doesn't need to be horrid and dry. This is math-just as serious as it needs to be-and I can tell you from my child's smiles and chuckles, that's not very serious at all! As a bonus, these books are very low priced compared to any other math books on the market. (Compare to Saxon at 50-70). If you have a creative child who is languishing on traditional math programs, try Life of Fred! Math, As Serious As it Needs to Be!

Life of Fred--Cats

Ice Cream is the ninth book in the Life of Fred Elementary Series, which is designed for students in grades 1-4. Each narrative-based chapter is approximately six pages and ends with a "Your Turn to Play" segment with three or four questions. Answers are provided on the next page for students to go over themselves after attempting to solve the problems. This book should take approximately one month to complete.

Life of Fred--Ice Cream

The idea behind Life of Fred is that if students have an enjoyable experience and have fun doing their math, they will remember it and use it and have a good taste in their math about the whole subject. The sub-title on each of his math books is "As Serious As it Needs to Be". And that is just the point: math doesn't need to be horrid and dry. This is math-just as serious as it needs to be-and I can tell you from Louisa's smiles and chuckles, that's not very serious at all! As a bonus, these books are very low priced compared to any other math books on the market. (Compare to Saxon at 50-70). If you have a creative child who is languishing on traditional math programs, try Life of Fred! Math, As Serious As it Needs to Be! If you know your math facts (addition and multiplication) and you can read well, then the next step is to get to know Fred! Beware: This is not a traditional math book. This is a child-directed course. The student reads the adventure story, does the math problems that occur as a natural part of the story, and checks their answers (the solutions are right there for the looking.) And learns to love math in the process! You will not get the detailed formula explanations that you get in a traditional math book. I am still amazed that kids can read the story and learn the concepts, but they do!

Life of Fred--Jelly Beans

Zillions of Practice Problems for Beginning Algebra

Life of Fred : Elementary Physics

STANLEY F. SCHMIDT

The second book in the Life of Fred Intermediate Series What to Pack for Camp, 1/4 + 1/4 +1/4 = 3/4, Why Blowing Your Nose and Wiping Your Eyes Is Not Commutative, I.e., E.g., Viz., Elapsed Time, the Two Rules of Survival, Passing the Sat Exam, Metaphors, the Three Angles of a Triangle Always Add to 180º, What Can Go Wrong with a Lifetime Guarantee, How To Be a Business Success, the Pythagorean Theorem, Finding Two-fifths of 400,000, Ordering Tjvjik, Ghapama and Satsivi at a Restaurant, Being a Hepatologist, Solving 2x - 7 = 11, What Livers Do, the Difference Between Saturnalia and Saturnine, Hypercholesterolemia, Pie Charts, Cirrhosis, the Drawbacks of Multitasking, Extradural Hemorrhage, Six-sevenths of 413, Four Drawbacks to Fred Living in a Castle in Germany, Verbs Often Used by People in Various Occupations, Treble and Bass Clefs, Electrical Use by U.S. Farms in 1925, How to Win at Bridge, Short Division, Quotients, Secant Lines, How to Have People like You, Changing Percents to Fractions-68 Completely Worked out Examples, Computing 2% of 550, Who Is Not Harmed by Watching Television All Day Long, the Difference Between Graffito and Graffiti, Pet Names Are Different than Names for Pets, How Not to Work Out in a Gym Weight Room, Functions, Domains, and Codomains, Brain Chatter and the Uses of Silence, Reducing Fractions, the First Step in Producing Great Art, What Three Units of a College Class Means, Reasonable Answers, the One Purpose of Great Universities, the Masthead of a Newspaper, Forming the Possessive of Words That End in S, Four Things That Are Important to Learn Earlier in Life, Finding an Average.

Life of Fred -- Liver

The intermediate books are not essential. When a student finishes Jelly Beans, they have all the arithmetic they need to start Fractions, but because of how quickly students can progress in the elementary books, a student might not be old enough to really be ready for Fractions (author recommends 5th grade). Kidneys, Liver and Mineshaft allow for more practice of arithmetic while the student gets older.

Life of Fred -- Mineshaft

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