Life of Fred: Pre-Algebra 2 with Economics

Life of Fred College Prep Set #4

by Stanley F. Schmidt

Fred begins his summer vacation.

Learn . . .

How to get rid of snakes in sugar cane fields
The difference between freedom and liberty
Why Fred couldn’t be a movie star . . . and even some algebra and economics
All fun!
Just open & enjoy

Domain and codomain of a function, Conversion factors, Steps in Solving Word Problems, How Not to Bore Your Horse If You Are a Jockey, One-to-one Functions, Unit Analysis, Key to a Successful Business, Five Qualities that Money Should Have, the Tulip Mania in Holland, Definitions of Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism, Payday Loans, the Tragedy of the Commons, Partnerships, Cardinality of a Set, Four Ways to Kill Competition, Freedom vs. Liberty, Why We Have a High Standard of Living, Tariffs, Demand Curves, Venn Diagrams, Ricardo’s Law of Comparative Advantage.

Genres: Mathematics, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Stanley F. Schmidt is an educator. He began teaching high school teacher at the age of 22, and later taught in a college.

Reviews

[Lorelei · Rating 1 out of 5]

More math and less political posturing would have made this a better text. Also some of the history is questionable at best. Really disappointing considering how happy we've been with the Fred books in general. The goal here is to teach math. Fitting it into the real world is a plus, but when the 'real' world is full of so much propaganda... Stick to teaching math. Seriously.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

So disappointed. I got the Life of Fred books to help my daughter enjoy math just a bit more. And for fractions and decimals and such, I love the books. They're quirky and fun, but also teach the subject. I figured I'd use this along with another math curriculum since it doesn't seem like enough. I hadn't looked at this one until my son had a question with his interest rate questions and I thought this might have something that would help. Boy was I surprised (and disappointed) when I saw a long-ish blurb on the Civil War that claimed it wasn't about slavery (even though the secession documents all listed slavery as the reason). I grew up learning the Lost Cause in school in KY, and I've taught my children about the errors in it, so I guess I can use this text as an illustration of the reasoning Lost Cause adherents use and how to combat it.

[Charity · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars because it does manage to teach some math in between the propaganda. Calling the Civil War the "Second War of Independence" and totally dismissing the idea that slavery had anything to do with the South seceding was just one of many instances that had me doing damage control with my eight-year-old.

[Ayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Life of Fred books aren't very good for a stand-alone curriculum, but they make ok reviews or prep for other curriculums. The little stories of Fred Guass's life as a five-year-old math professor at Kittens University are fun ways to explain mathematical concepts, but they aren't in-depth enough to stand by themselves. They can also be fun read-aloud books for children who don't otherwise enjoy math.

I used this book to take a break in the middle of my Algebra 1 curriculum to review concepts I didn't fully understand and to identify what I needed to work on, it did a perfect job of that. The integrated Economics is a nice precursor to me reading Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics, Life of Fred makes it so a fourth grader could understand at least some of the simpler ideas regarding business.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

We have loved and used a LOT of Life of Fred books in this house and wow, was this one a shocking disappointment. I legit feel bad now about people I've recommended this series to. This one is full of things like equating feudalism to socialism and claiming the American Civil War had nothing to do with slavery. It's not just one bad sentence; it's everywhere, and it's not even good economics.

[Kaylyn T · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for school but this counts toward my goodreads reading goal right?
eh whatever

[Chase · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't agree with certain concepts on economics, but was still a valuable perspective.

[Hehe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty classic Life of Fred book, although the math was a bit more in-depth with this one. The economics parts were a tad bit boring, but overall still really enjoyed it.