PLEASE NOTE! This post has nothing to do with eating healthfully… unless you want to talk about Fred.
This is Fred
Fred is a 5 year old boy who teaches math at Kitten’s University. He hardly ever eats anything at all and saves what food he finds in his desk drawer “for later”.
(Does this ever bother anyone else? I just want to take little Fred home and give him something good to eat!)
But we are not here to talk about Fred and his eating habits.
For those of you who do not know about Life of Fred, let me make a brief introduction. Life of Fred is an amazing series of MATH books which my family uses in our home school curriculum… and we LOVE IT!!!
So if you don’t want to know about math books, please move on to another post, as this one is not intended but for those who are interested in math and learning. (Many mothers who read our blog are interested in good, healthy, wholesome food for the body, as well as the mind and the heart; this post is the later varietyof food.)
Elementary Series Includes Life of Fred: Apples, Butterflies, Cats, and Dogs
I originally purchased the first couple books of the elementary series (Life of Fred: Apples – Dogs) for myself because I wanted to learn math. I feel my children will learn best if I set the example for them and since I am lucky I graduated high school at all and hated math ever since about the 6th grade I decided this was a program made just for me.
In my enthusiasm over the books on the day they arrived (and subsequent delight), the rest of my children have been clamoring to get a hold of the books (I get first priority). A few of my children are ahead of me and they have worked their way through the elementary series. I just ordered Life of Fred: Percentages, and the Fractions/Decimals. Another child made it through Honey and decided to go back to Apples. Each person can work at their own pace. I like that.
I just started Life of Fred : Ice Cream
The reason for this post is to include here the multiplication chart found on page 20 of chapter 2.
I’ve been laboring to teach my 8 and 10 year old’s their multiplication facts. (A deep dark secret about me: I never knew my addition facts until Life of Fred. Really truly I had to add 3+4 on my fingers! I’m so grateful that even though I got a late start, there is now a program that can help even me! Math has actually become FUN! Now I’m hoping to spare my children some of the grief I experienced!)
So before Life of Fred, the chart we used is similar to the one pictured right. The dubious chart was hung in my daughters’ room to help them memorize multiplication. It was overwhelming and unnecessary, to say the least.
I got through reading Fred’s Trimmed down table on page 20, chapter 2 of Ice Cream. So I looked on the internet to see if I could find one like Fred’s which I could print out to help us practice (to go along with our Honey Cards, introduced in Life of Fred: Honey. I couldn’t find one so I made one. You can download the one that is blank and the one with the answers below. They are very simple. I wanted my children to be able to visualize how much easier it would be to learn just these few.
You will notice that because of the commutative law of multiplication, only half the facts need to be learned and is reflected in the chart. Wow! I love simplification!!!
learn more about Life of Fred: http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/index2.html
Order your own Life of Fred: http://ztwistbooks.com/oscstore/index.php?cPath=21
(I do not get paid to share that info- just in case you were wondering. We just really love the books! I figure if I was looking for the multiplication chart then others might be interested in it as well for their benefit. I sure hope it helps!)
Best Math Wishes!!!
=) Linda/ Bearknudsen
PS: 3 + 4 = 7
