The Life of Fred Elementary Set #1: Apples, Butterflies, Cats, Dogs (4 books total) Hardcover – January 1, 2011

I had high expectations for this series of math curriculum. I have a 9 and 7 year old and previously we had a very lax homeschool environment but did workbooks for math and handwriting. They HATED it. It was a fight. Now we are pursuing a Charlotte Mason education and wanted to use this for math for the fun atmosphere. They love the stories and are relating and it starts great conversations.

My son is highly gifted. For our first year of homeschool, we started in Saxon Math. The constant reviews and worksheets made him hate math (it used to be his favorite). Since starting LOF, which I read about on the Hoagies website, he loves it even more. I started him at the Apple book and let him work on his own time. Since the concepts in Apples were very elementary, he was able to really get into the story. He has completed the first four books in a matter of weeks. I am ready to get to his level so we can begin working together. The other day I picked up book 3, Cats, and just read off a question at the end of a chapter he was just beginning to read. I said, "What's the cardinality of Orion's belt?" Now I had no idea what the answer was, so I was very surprised when he just looked up and calmly said - "3". I flipped the page to the answer...he was right!! Not only that, he could explain to me how he got his answer. This book is great for kids who get concepts very quickly and remember them easily. It seems to be adding so much more to his learning experience.

Most math is taught on its own, without any context. Even most homeschool math programs just teach rules and repetition without any real discussion of the application. As a consequence most kids hate math.These books are the complete opposite. They're fun stories that introduce math concepts in context and applications and don't demand senseless repetition.A family member told us about how much their kids loved this, so we decided to try it. Now our kids love doing math, and they clearly understand the concepts and when to use them. This is easily the best homeschool math curriculum I've ever encountered.

We have tried so many different math curriculums throughout the years. I recently purchased these for my youngest because he was struggling with reading and he loves Math. I have friends who rave about Life of Fred and have been for years. Well, now i know what all the hype was about. He is loving these books! The questions at the end of each chapter really make him think and use his reasoning skills. He is learning reading, and some grammar, science and other things as well. These books are fabulous! He could have started much higher up, but we chose to start from the beginning. He's zipping through them, but having a ball!We can't say enough great things about Life of Fred now. We will be sticking with his and ordering more.My only disappointment is that I didn't listen sooner and order these for my older kids when they were younger.

Entertaining way to teach math to early elementary kids. Great series for gifted learners.

We've been doing the first Life of Fred book borrowed from a friend for a little while. It's a great way to introduce math to little ones, especially if your children are like mine and love to listen to stories! I ordered the complete set so we could move on seamlessly without having to continually borrow books. Package arrived in great shape, and in a fairly timely fashion considering the shipping delays die to the pandemic. Also this seller knows how to flatter his customers, I will be ordering more books from him in the future!

These hilarious books get eaten up by my 8 year old. His math questions and interests were getting beyond my ability to answer well. Since i am in no way interested in sticking him with some stuffy curriculum, this was perfect. He reads them over and over, at his leisure, and finds them enjoyable and interesting - i think they are intelligent, substantive, and silly enough for him. If you *are* doing some sort of math curriculum, i would recommend reading these first, so they get the concepts before they're trying to do the work.

My son loves these books. I think they are funny and whimsical, however I'm not sure of what he is actually learning as a progression. He is learning a lot of theory and mathematical history and it gets him to think of math in a fun way, but I think we will be using it as an addition to a traditional math program rather than replacing it.