Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Life of Fred math books

We just discovered these through a friend: Life of Fred books about math written in story form. They are written by Stanley F. Schmidt.

DS8 is devouring them and I wish I had found them for him a year or two ago when he was begging for math and I didn't know what to do for him!

stanleyschmidt.com

My son likes the books also, but I wonder if after reading a LoF book, for example Beginning Algebra, a gifted student should proceed to the next book in the series (Advanced Algebra) or cover Algebra I with a more traditional textbook.

Your son may also like "Algebra, the Easy Way" (and the trig and calculus books) by Downing. This book, like LoF, uses a narrative format.

Both of my girls love LoF. We're using them for afterschooling.

I just placed a hold on the fractions book at our library! Tonight, we are reading a Sir Cumference book (from the library as well)

Our experience is that our (very mathy) DS deveoured the LoF series up to about Algebra. We have the those later books but they didn't hold his interest as much. We definitely endorse LoF.

Thanks for the reference to the Downing books. They may fill a void.

JB

My DS9 loves these books because of the storyline. He is accelerated 2 years in math (and jumps up one more year next year). I have never made him do the questions (if I homeschooled I would), but he loves reading the stories and seems to absorb quite a bit. He has done the first 3 books, and is begging me to get the next 3 (trig. geo. and something else, I'd have to check). Anyway, he recalls a lot of what he has learned just from reading the books.

I have read the fractions and decimal books and thought they were a hoot. I still have to read the alegbra ones, but they helped me with my math, so I cannot imagine they would not help a bright child.

We too, LOVE LoF books! We have the fractions and the decimals one. They are amazing books. I wish schools used them! We do them for fun at home. They are just awesome!

Thanks for the other recommendations. DS is concurrently doing the Khan algebra lecture sequence and using the Harold Jacobs algebra textbook to get ready for Epsilon camp at the end of summer. Any free-time math reading you all can tell me about is much appreciated.

This is going to be a math-centric summer! (per DS's request) Since I am not mathy, I need help from you all For example, Catalana, you said you thought the LoF books were a hoot, but my eyes glazed over and my brain went slack when I browsed it! We are dealing with a rock-bottom math person trying to guide a mathy kid here!!

Thanks for this! I just ordered the first two. DD and I read the sample of the first book together and she was absolutely tickled.

I just want to let you know you are not alone. I'm not mathy either and my DS loves math. Some reccomendations - Check out mindware.com for interesting out of the box math, and Math alive series, http://www.amazon.com/Science-Math-Alive-Dawn-Stosch/dp/0761432132