Life of Fred is a complete mathematics curriculum. It is unique among math curriculums in several ways. First, it is story based. The books follow Fred Gauss, a 5-year-old math professor at KITTENS University, and his doll Kingie, on new adventures in each book. Second, Life of Fred is FUN (did we mention Fred is a 5-year-old professor with a talking doll?). Third, it is holistic. The series is a complete math education from kindergarten, through university. All written in the same style, with the same characters, by the same author. Because it is story based, there are many many other interesting and informative topics woven in. The student will learn parts of grammar, science tidbits, and life lessons throughout the course of the books. This means that as students use Life of Fred, where the humorous story integrates rigorous math, they will have the familiar and enjoyable experience of reading about Fred alongside the fresh and challenging experience of learning new math. Finally, the math is practical and taught in a spiral approach. Fred encounters a need for math — and then he does the math. Almost all the problems are presented as "word problems" in the real (if rather zany) world of KITTENS University. Because of this, math of all levels is woven throughout the whole series of books in an age-appropriate way, providing a gentle approach to understanding math concepts over time.
The animating principle of Life of Fred is that Mathematics is something that should be enjoyed and appreciated, not hated or dreaded. Dr Schmidt built his career on this principle, and so each book is "as serious as it needs to be" while also containing tremendous amounts of math. The books are written to be read-aloud in the younger years and then transition to the students reading on their own. The curriculum is self-contained, heirloom quality, affordable and self-teaching. Each subject has one or two books (Fractions through Advanced Algebra have books of additional practice problems). There are no CDs/DVDs/Teachers guides/Answer keys/Workbooks or anything else to buy. The books are Smyth Sewn binding, one of the sturdiest and highest quality bindings available. They are priced well below the cost of competing curricula and are written for the student to read then work out the Your Turn to Play (practice problems) section in a notebook — allowing the textbooks to be passed on through many children.
Fred is designed to be progressed through at a student's own pace. After the elementary and Intermediate Series, the books are generally equivalent to one year's curriculum in typical schools, however, as stories they are simply split into chapters. Most children and young adults can progress through them more rapidly than traditional classes because there is less "Drill and Kill" than most curricula. For the full Life of Fred experience, you can start with Apples in the Elementary Series, and read all the way through — however if your student has a good understanding of some math concepts already, you can visit our Where to Start page to find the book for them to start with. Remember that these books are stories, not big workbooks. If a student is struggling with a particular concept they've already passed, they can simply read through an earlier book on that topic for a fresh perspective on what is challenging them.
We can't say for sure that Life of Fred is the ONLY math curriculum every student will want to study — some students prefer more problems, some students benefit from doing two programs. What we CAN say is that Life of Fred is the very best foundational math program on the market. Most students can receive an excellent math education through Life of Fred alone, and even if you choose to add in additional math, our books are affordable enough and enjoyable enough to be read as a supplement.
Let Life of Fred take your students from DOING math to LOVING math.
**A note about this site: you'll notice that the book descriptions include all sorts of topics that aren't math within each text. We are promoting a literature based education, so those topics are provided to help you find additional books to read as you go through the math book — consider it your library shopping list!