Charry started using Life of Fred, in 3rd grade, after a very bad 2nd grade year. And to be honest the books aren't perfect. But for all their faults the love of math that they inspire has made them totally worth it for us.
So how do they inspire a love of math? The books tell a humorous tale of tiny 5 year old Fred Gauss and his adventures as a math teacher at Kittens University. Charry is willing to work through the math in order to read about poor Fred and his misadventures.
How well do they teach math? Well, that depends on the student. Fred books present math as puzzles for the reader to solve. If a child loves working through puzzles these are excellent. My child is not a lover of puzzles so she took some coaxing. Since she is a lover of attention having math one on one with mom was a motivator. And since I love puzzles I could walk her though things, asking the questions that helped her head in the right direction.
Is it really a complete curriculum? Yes, but that doesn't mean it never needs supplementing. With the Beginning Algebra book I also bought the "additional problems." Since I'm not great at making up problems this was helpful. But we didn't use most of it. For most lessons what was in the book was enough for her to understand the concept.
Did she remember what she learned? Yes! Between the antidotal Fred stories (which all related back to the math) and the mom examples, she got a high A on her final test! To be honest it surprised me how well she did.
So what are the faults? One is the time I had to spend with her. I don't consider this a fault really but many homeschoolers want their students able to work independently in highschool. Honestly I don't think any math curriculum is very "independent" especially once you get to highschool.
Another fault that seems to be present in all of Dr Schmidt's books is an arrogance of the author. He constantly seems to belittle other math books and other teacher. I think it is all in jest but occasionally it will rub me the wrong way.
So all in all I love Fred! (In fact I'm coming very close to owning all of the Math books) And next year Charry is excited to be following his adventures once again!
