Life of Fred: Cats

Life of Fred Elementary Series #3

by Stanley F. Schmidt

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 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!

Genres: Mathematics, Education, School, Childrens, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Reference

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

[Ammie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this aloud every day during snack. One of the best decisions I have ever made. On to Dogs.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can be learned in Book 3 of the Fred series: Cats? I learned that cats are not a simple carnivore, but are obligate carnivores. That is especially true if the cat turns out to be a loose tiger cub. Fred's adventures start with no heat in his building one February night because the building inspector said the university president ordered a hiring freeze, which the inspector understood as turning off the heat. So, one strange event leads to another, with telling time, counting money (buying a lemon of a space heater), recognizing patterns (which is how Fred acquired the strange kitty), learning place value (because the "kitty" made a mess of pill boxes and they had to be restacked), and mentioning prime numbers (because mathematicians like playing with numbers), along with all sorts of word concepts and geography lessons. Five year old mathematician/teacher Fred with his pointed nose and square head keeps this adult engaged in his story page after page.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as good as the first one. It's interesting to me how many life-lessons Schmidt sneaks in there along with the Math! My children find it endlessly entertaining.

I'm always delightfully surprised to see how well the lessons stick when they are taught through literature and real-life experiences rather than dry textbook facts that are quickly forgotten.

Very applicable and effective for early elementary grades!

[Enola Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

We love Life of Fred. Even the two year old cheers when I say the immortal words "Your Turn to Play". Also, an introduction into tesseracts and obligate carnivores, and a handy way to think of prime numbers.
I HATED mathematics in school. My children love it... mostly because of these books.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are reading through this series during our morning time routine. It is amazing how much information is contained in each book. It must be a winner when my 5 year old pipes up at dinner time and says "brushing your teeth and going to bed are not commutative".

[Nevada Libert · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a great math book.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, engaging, outside of the box math curriculum. My kids LOVE Fred, his silly humor, and learn much along the way with far less effort than with traditional math books.

[Ardyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This third book in the series largely follows the pattern of the first two, and so did our experience.

Later chapters finally introduced some challenging ideas to our 9yo, namely prime vs not-prime (aka boxable) numbers and categorizing large collections into distinctly defined (but not itemized) sets. We spent a fair bit of time working together on these handful of questions.

I am still certain that LoF, while engaging for the target audience, is not sufficient mathematics *practice* on its own. More on that & why/how my family is using it anyway in my review of book one, Life of Fred: Apples, which you can find here.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catherine really enjoys her math time with these books. I'm not totally sure about them, but will trust the process. The author seems to add SO much random non-math stuff. At times, this adds to the fun and even the humor of the book, but at other times, it feels overly didactic in a way that I wasn't looking for in a math book. Some of the math that is included seems weird to be introducing at this point. Again, hoping that there is a method to the madness and will continue on since we have the first 7 books. Will reevaluate from there to decide whether to continue. I'm just glad that, for now, these are creating a positive association with math.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this math series still!!

[Meredith Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

read with & rated by Ben and Mabry

[Yz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was actually pretty funny with the whole "cat" scenario but when Fred got cheated it was just so raw and it really made me sad.

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very funny when he found the cat.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kids are obsessed with Fred and Kingie.

[Diago Padilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title realy matches the story

[dd Padilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love I love all the life of Fred’s so much

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

These just keep getting better. I love the funny, playful approach to math for children. I highly recommend this series.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun view on math for young people.

[librarygirl93 · Rating 5 out of 5]

We worked through this in December 2024/anuary 2025. Thanks to Life of Fred, my 1st grader loves math and I love the ease of use!

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

L (7yo ) loves this whole series.
This one was a bit stretching for him when he had just turned 7

[Launna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this series. I learn some new tidbit in every book and they are so fun that the kids don’t mind them at all- they remind me to do a chapter if I ever forget.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super clever, as always. Funny and Light hearted. Does a fantastic job of introducing both simple and complex mathematical and scientific principles in a way that everyone can relate to and understand. My five year old laughs and learns it, my eight year old graps it, my 10 year old masters it, and my 13 year old goes on further to deeper levels of understanding because of it.

Simple..yet ingenious! This book series on living everyday math is for everyone from 5 to 99!

[Elaine Curry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great foundational series for those looking for a new approach to math. Fred's life is funny and interesting and my kids want more.

[Jennifer]

Reading to L, finally finished this week!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're loving these books. My son doesn't want me to stop and he's getting all the concepts in them just listening to it.

[Esther May · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fred is just silly. I do like how it covers a lot of math topics. It helps put math words in regular language.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially loved the way we were lead into prime numbers.

[Congetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son is not a big fan of reading or math, but he asks to read these books.

[Lisa Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elementary math, fabulous series.

[Amélie Hartley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, It was pretty good even for a second time around.