The Critical Thinking Co: A Review

Recently the kiddos and I have had the chance to try two books from Timberdoodle by The Critical Thinking Co.

The Critical Thinking Co . products are designed to help students carefully analyze what they are learning and develop problem-solving skills through fun and creative exercises in reading, writing, math, history and science. They offer workbooks in all of these subjects for ages Pre-K through Adult.

I've used one of their Mind Benders books before and my children really loved it, so I was excited to try a couple more of their books~one with each child~to see how they worked with our family. And I must say I've been very pleased with these workbooks. My kids have really enjoyed them!

The Princess, who is in 2nd grade, has been working through the Building Thinking Skills Book 1. This book is all about developing deductive reasoning, sequencing, similarities/differences and SO much more. These were skills she needed to sharpen and I've been very pleased with how well she has done in this book. She has really loved the exercises and often asks to do more than I had planned for the day. Who can complain about that?!

Mr. B, who is in K5, has been working through the Mathematical Reasoning Level B and loves it! He is very much inclined toward math anyway and this has been a wonderful addition to the math curriculum that he has already been doing. This book deals not just with basic math problems but also symmetry, graphing, fractions, patterns, puzzles and much, much more. This is Mr. B's first year to do any formal math and I can tell how much he enjoys it. This book has been a treat for him and he always enjoys starting his school day with it. The exercises are varied so it's not monotonous at all.

I'm looking forward to using these workbooks year round in addition to our regular curriculum. The Critical Thinking Co. books would be a great way to keep your children's thinking skills sharp through the summer even if you're not schooling through the summer. They would also be great for conventionally-schooled children during their summer break.

If you've never checked out Timberdoodle, you definitely need to! They have some of the best homeschool resources around including complete curriculum kits. You can even request a free catalog.

Disclosure:
As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received free copies of these books in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

This post is linked to the Homeschool Curriculum Roundup at The Happy Housewife.

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