Life of Fred: Butterflies

Life of Fred Elementary Series #2

by Stanley F. Schmidt

Life of Fred--Butterflies

Genres: Mathematics, Childrens, Education, Nonfiction, School, 2nd Grade, Arithmetic

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

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

[Timilyn]

Thanks for making math bearable!

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Round 2 with kid 2. Still can't fathom using Fred as a stand-alone curriculum, but it's a weekly pleasure.

[Isabella Leake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of what I said about Apples applies to Butterflies. The series has continued to open my children's eyes to an intriguing mathematical world outside their (often) hated math lessons. Life of Fred inspires them to ponder and ask theoretical questions about numbers and operations that they haven't even begun to encounter. I love how much it expands their minds and curiosities!

This volume is slightly less captivating than the first volume — the storyline, which includes a lot about some of Fred's students with ill-developed character, wasn't quite as on-point.

It also includes some bits that were supposed to be funny but made me slightly uncomfortable. A few chapters express the surprisingly dogmatic (maybe also elitist?) implication that the university groundskeeper is ignorant, has a poor vocabulary, and only reads newspaper headlines because he spends all day watching TV — it's not very funny because it's not very lighthearted: one suspects the author actually believes this. This kind of heavy-handed, moralistic social commentary seems totally out of place in the utterly wacky world of Fred.

But my children seemed equally captivated by this volume, even when they voiced a wish for chapters without Betty and Alexander (Fred's students).

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have an admiration for what Stanley Schmidt is doing with Life of Fred. I can identify with how horrible standard math textbooks are with their rhythm of explanation of a math problem, and then the dreaded 60-80 questions to answer on the problem. Then it’s a stifling repeat of the same again and again every chapter.

However, after going through this second Life of Fred volume with my son, I’m finding that it’s not teaching as much math as it seems that it should. Each chapter is an off the wall story. The story contains math concepts, which is good. However the concepts don’t seem to be taught in a systematic way - from basics to more complex concepts. They seem more like a scatter shot of everything and anything. There’s usually only 3 questions at the end of each chapter, which - while better than 80 of them, is just not enough for learning the concept (that is if there is a concept for each chapter - most of them seem like a scatter shot).

There are also other issues - like the texts asking at one time all questions that my son can answer with almost no thought, and generally too easy. And then, in the same chapter one of the questions is so difficult that it stumps me - and I have to google it.
Often the questions involve more writing ability than students should have at this stage. For example the questions sometimes involve a several sentence answer to explain or describe something. But students at this age can’t do that yet. It’s an English skill they haven’t learned yet. My son is a grade ahead - so he can do these questions - but the average student won’t be able to.

All in all - this may be helpful for some students. But I’m increasingly skeptical as to whether this curriculum was a good choice.

As a side note, I would love a math curriculum that had 1) a mathematical explanation of the problem, then 2) some examples of why someone would use the skills presented, and then 3) some math history going through how and why the mathematical formula was developed, and finally 4) 10-15 problems to do. This kind of math book would have made me love math growing up instead of hating it. It wouldn’t have stifled me with the problem count, and would have answered my questions as to why we do math, and would have peaked my interest with the history behind it. As it was, the standard math book layout stifled any interest I had in the subject.

[Ardyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything I said about Life of Fred: Apples applies equally to this one.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great Fred book. My newly-eight-year-old was able to understand this book and learn from it. This is such a fun way to teach and learn math, especially for math-resistant kids.

[Mother Hen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as funny as the first one, with a lot more grammar, language, science, and geography mixed in with the math!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Currently reading and doing the questions while on our winter break from regular school assignments...krb 12/7/15

Ellie likes this book more than Jacob so far. She would like to do the next book but Jacob does not. He would rather go back to CLE math when we are done with Butterflies..krb 1/12/16

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Random but my son
Loved it

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope. Out of nowhere my "math" book turned into a fat shaming diet book. We are done with life of fred.

[Emma Filbrun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever since someone gave us a few Life of Fred books several months ago, I have been slowly reading them to my little girl. At times she loves them, and then she gets bored with them for a little while. Overall, she thinks the stories are quite fun. I’ve noticed that these books have helped her learn a number of math facts better, and she learned how to tell time through reading these stories, along with doing her regular math books.
Life of Fred stories don’t merely present math topics. There are smatterings of other subjects mentioned as well, such as astronomy (we had an impromptu astronomy lesson one night after reading about Orion in one of these stories) and foreign languages. It appears to me that the author’s purpose is to make children curious about the world and eager to learn more. This is certainly a fun way to learn!

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

We still really enjoy Fred and his math adventures, but there were a few things in this particular volume that were a bit strange...even for Fred. There is a diatribe about how awful sugar is (and I don't totally disagree, but I did find the passage to be particularly lengthy and condemning as well as out of place in what I understand to be a lighthearted approach to math as story); a section about the deaths of two KITTENS University employees; and a series on quotations within quotations that made my kids' eyes glaze over a bit (mine, too, to be honest - and I'm a grammar nerd). We've moved to the next book and I anticipate finishing that and continuing on, but my guard is up a tad more considering some of the content in this second volume.

[Adayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

Included in our homeschool morning time for kids age 8 and under. Some parts made us laugh and we enjoyed the weirdness of it.

A few sections were simply too odd to laugh at. A couple guys, who we met and started to know as characters, were crushed and killed by a tower. And we all thought we were supposed to find it funny but it was just not. Also, in a few places, it mentions not eating sugar or junk food because it'll make you fat. Just odd stuff to put into a math book.

We like Fred and I enjoy the short chapters and variety of information. This one was sometimes too much variety and strayed from the subject of math often.

[Chloe (Always Booked) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh. I am definitely unhauling this series. This is the continuation of a 5 year old kid named Fred who is a mathematician. We're getting his day to day life with math concepts thrown in. However, this story is weirdly dark. Fred has an eating disorder, there is fat shaming, food labeling and people who get killed (but nobody cares because all they did was watch TV). Furthermore, the math concepts are really random (this whole book is about adding numbers that equal 9) and while its really engaging, I just don't love the content.

[Caleb Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not as good as the first one. The math was not woven into the story very well this time, in my opinion.

There were also a number of ungracious comments (that were supposed to be funny) about people who watch too much TV or eat too much sugar or do things that proper homeschool families don't do. No thanks.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

My boys absolutely LOVE Fred!! On to book number three...Cats.

Also, the books have an order, but are not numbered....which I find amusing for a math series...they are alphabetical. 1= Apples 2= Butterflies 3= Cats 4= Dogs...etc.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend The Life of Fred. The storyline is simple and funny across the series. The introduction and reviewing of arithmetic operations, as well as more difficult mathematical ideas are a joy to engage with.

[Annie Langston · Rating 5 out of 5]

For an educational book, it was pretty cool.
Most educational books wouldn't make it like a fairy tale.

[Meredith Hall]

(with Ben)

[Andrea Renfrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should NOT be treated as a math curriculum. My kid loves reading these together for fun though.

[Catherine Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

We enjoyed it, as we do all the Life of Fred books, but we weren't super inspired to start the next one.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this book as much as Apples, but I do love this series for teaching math principles in an engaging way.

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

my favorite part that Fred will not eat

[Rin Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

,

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loving Life of Fred for my kids. We laugh our way through math!

[Ammie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been such a joy to read with my 3rd & 4th graders. ❤️ They long for it, and it is helping them see Math in a new light.

[Cecilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fred is just so ridiculous

[librarygirl93 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worked through it the first time in October/November 2024. We love this curriculum, and math is my 1st graders most favorite subject, thanks mainly to Life of Fred.

[Anna Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first one. Very silly and quirky

[Ruthie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea but my son loves these stories when I pull the book out for our weekly reading. A good supplement to the curriculum.