Life of Fred: Edgewood

Life of Fred Elementary Series #5

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 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! 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!

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

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

[Pamela Bronson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Life of Fred books are very kid-friendly and engaging.

I love that, along with some arithmetic, this book teaches (among other things) good grammar, thankfulness, gun safety, and the concept of functions.

I like the fairly subtle pro-Christian slant, though I realize some might not. I don't like its political slant, which I tend to think does not belong in a math book. I hope to use the Life of Fred books with a grandchild (if any appears) and will have to correct for that.

If I do use these books, I plan to supplement with Miquon Math - though actually these short books would be better described as the supplements.

[Ardyth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Least interesting, least enjoyable of the bunch so far.

I wonder if this is when all the LoF evangelists become apostates? If so, I don't blame them -- but I *do* wish they'd be as noisy about abandoning the series as they are about its "excellence" after only the first volume (Life of Fred: Apples).

There's no arc to this book. There *is* a multi-chapter reference to Fred's missing father and deceased mother which is really a thinly-veiled teaser for Life of Fred Calculus: Expanded Edition. (present in other volumes but longer here). And there's a weird non sequitur about guns with clip art of a handgun and the following text (bolded in the original):

"I didn't know whether it was loaded." - Type One Error

"I thought it was unloaded." - Type Two Error

What?

As mentioned in my reviews of other entries, we are reading these as a mathy ideas / entertainments kind of deal for my math-anxious 9yo. The first four mostly achieved that goal. During the second half of this book, he asked (begged) for no more Fred. Maybe he'll change his mind in a few weeks. I suspect not... this one was a drag, felt pretty random, and Dr Stan came across as somewhat cranky.

So. I don't recommend buying the entire elementary & intermediate series. Perhaps not even the smaller 4-volume sets... I now own three it seems likely we'll never read.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the other life of Fred books, but this one not so much. Hopefully the next one is better.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent as always!

[Yz · Rating 3 out of 5]

As always I learned a lot and it was pretty fun actually!

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dottie the duck from duck land is very funny

[Chase · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was really weird even by Life of Fred standards

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fred hasn’t disappointed us yet. Fun stuff for read aloud.

[Meredith Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

(with Ben & Mabry)

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

C is getting better at her math facts!

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son has been enjoying these books. He is ahead of me in reading them. They are fun, educational, and easy to understand.

[Diago Padilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always good and funny and super cool and if you just started reading this is a series that I recommen.

[Esther May · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Fred book in the books. I think they cover lots of different topics and give us time to think about so many different things. I do have a huge problem with Fred not eating though. I don't think this is a good example. It really bothers me.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Life of Fred books, but this volume was a little weirder to me. The storyline was almost traumatic, and I felt myself resisting reading it with my son rather than eager to. Ah, well, we finished, and the math practice was still spot on.

[Elaine Curry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like these books, and my kids love them. We have the entire elementary series and are moving through them for our math curriculum.

[Christie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was kind of sad :( I wish Fred would have tried to enjoy Edgewood instead of moping and running back to KITTENS.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just have to say I'm happy to be through this book. It took us forever for some reason. My kids liked it, but we didn't do it quickly (think months and months).

[Congetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son doesn't enjoy math or reading, but he asks to read LOF books!

[Lisa Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elementary to middle school review math, excellent series.

[Theresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was surprised to see these books go straight to algorithms for all 4 orders of operation (beginning in either Edgewood or Farming).

[Cori Thonen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for teaching elementary math! This one focuses on the math facts for the numbers 8, 10, and 12.