You know what arithmetic books look like. They are all pretty much alike. Using very few words, they give a couple of examples and then have the students do a hundred identical problems. Then they give another couple of examples and another hundred problems. And for students, arithmetic becomes as much fun as cleaning up their rooms, eating yams, or going to the dentist.
The books in the Life of Fred series take a different approach. Veteran math teacher, Stan Schmidt, has brought to life a character who will make math fun, relevant, and understandable. Don’t be surprised if your child who dreads math asks to do more at the end of a lesson. Each of the books tells a story—a story of one day in the life of a five-and-a-half-year-old boy. All of the math arises out of Fred’s life. Never again will students have to ask their perennial question: “When are we ever gonna use this stuff?”
Don’t let the nontraditional method of teaching fool you. Each of these books contains more math than is normally taught in a traditional program. These are not skimpy, just effective. One of the reasons is that very few arithmetic books tell you the why of various math rules—they just say that “it’s a rule”. Fred will give you the reasoning behind the rules making the math much more meaningful and memorable.
These books are gloss-film laminated hardcovers with Smyth sewn binding. Fully indexed and illustrated. They are not workbooks to write in, and each book will be enjoyed by all your children (and grandchildren!)
Kidneys, Liver and Mineshaft are considered the Intermediate Series and go between Jelly Beans and Fractions. They are not essential. When a student finishes Jelly Beans, they have all the arithmetic they need to start Fractions, but because of how quickly students can progress in the elementary books, a student might not be old enough to really be ready for Fractions (author recommends 5th grade). Kidneys, Liver and Mineshaft allow for more practice of arithmetic while the student gets older.
In Mineshaft you’ll find: Milligrams and Pounds, Rounding Numbers; a Trillion Pounds of Rice to Cuba; the Number of Stars in a Typical Galaxy; Three-eights of 19,416; Is a Quart less than (<) a Duck?; What to Do with Eleven Hours of Free Time Each Day; Six Is What Fraction of 24? Post Meridiem; Exponents; Extending the Domain of a Function; What Piece of Leather Made Feudalism Possible; Perpendicular Lines; Diminutives; Silent Letters; Rhombus; Can a Four-sided Figure Have Exactly Three Right Angles? Cardinality of Sets; Sectors; Most Horses Achieve Few Outstanding Things in Life; the Reason to Learn the Greek Alphabet; Square Knots; Inverse Operations; How Concrete Is Different than Cement; Prolix vs. Laconic; Freedom vs. Liberty; the Largest Cardinal Number Isn’t Six; Ounces, Gills, and Pints; Italicizing Book Titles; 30% of 270; Division by 100; Broiling vs. Pan Frying; Freud, Skinner, and Maslow; the Four Types of Sentences; Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs; Pangolins; Mammals; Subtracting 3 oz. From 4 lbs. 2 oz.; Subtracting 7 Minutes 25 Seconds from 20 Minutes 10 Seconds; Subtracting 2 Gallons 1 Quart from 4 Gallons; Chords of a Circle; Three Definitions of Diameter; Steak for One-year-olds; Subtracting 40 Feet from 9 Miles; Fahrenheit to Celsius Conversions; Questions People Have at Different Stages in Life; Why You Won’t Bump into Moby Dick in Kansas; Does x < y Imply y > x? Converting 39 Inches into Feet; Indications Your Daughter Will Become an English Major; Finding the Sale Price after Taking 40% Off; the Image of an Element in the Domain of a Function; 63ºF = 17 2/9ºC.
