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Product Review—The Critical Thinking Co.™

October 5, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Little Miss and I have been having fun working through a book titled Building Thinking Skills Beginning 2, from The Critical Thinking Co.™. We always enjoy the workbooks we get from this company, and this one is no exception! She loves doing pages from it, and always wants to do more than I had planned. We started out doing five pages a day, but now we’re often doing ten or more.Critical Thinking 3

The first several pages were very simple—name a shape and its color, figure out what “rule” applies to a group of shapes, match shapes and colors. Then there were some activities having to do with numbers of shapes in a group, and then we started working with patterns. Some pages have groups of pictures, and she is supposed to figure out which one is different, point it out, and tell me why it is different. That takes some thinking! As we progress through the book, I’m seeing that similar assignments get more difficult. A new step or concept will be added to the ones we’ve already been doing. For example, instead of shapes of particular colors filling a grid, and having to figure out which one is missing, there might be numbers or symbols, and the colors vary. Instead of one symbol missing from a grid, there are two missing—and then three.IMG_0063

Concepts like halves, longer/shorter, more/less, and taller/shorter are introduced. Most of the pages are very colorful and attractive, although some are black and white. That contrast, in my opinion, adds to the attractiveness of the book. A lot of pages instruct the child to point to a particular item; some say to draw lines to it. Some pages require drawing simple shapes. Little Miss quite enjoys the ones where she is to color pictures with a limited number of colors, and make each one different!Critical Thinking 1Critical Thinking 2

This book is available either in a hard copy or as a PDF. I received the PDF because I live outside the United States and it would have been cost-prohibitive to mail one here. I think I would order the PDF if I was buying the book, though. Most of it can be done on the computer screen, with the child just pointing to things or drawing a line with her fingers. A lot of pages just require talking about what is there! I’m printing the ones that tell her to draw something, and it’s nice that a lot of them can be printed in black and white. The biggest reason I like the PDF is that I will have it for Miss Joy to use in a couple of years, whereas a print book is consumable.Critical Thinking 4Critical Thinking 5

Little Miss is a bit on the older side for this book; it’s intended for use by preschoolers/kindergartners. She does have to stop and think a bit about some of the assignments, though. It’s been good for her to be forced to think logically to complete the activities! As we progress through the book, she is having to think a little more and a little more. I like this book and the way it helps children to think logically! I want to go through it with Miss Joy when she is four or five—I think she’ll love it, too!
Click on the image below to read more reviews of products from The Critical Thinking Co.™.

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Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Homeschool Review Crew, Homeschooling, Product Review

Product Review—The Critical Thinking Co.

June 6, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

When we had the chance to review something for The Critical Thinking Co.™ recently, I asked Mr. Intellectual to look over the choices with me, as this looked like products he would enjoy but no one else in the family would be interested in. Sure enough, he was very interested in Something Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha. He loves mysteries and puzzles, so this was perfect for him.

Untitled

The first thing I had Mr. Intellectual do was study the Forensic Evidence Lessons, since he had never learned much about that topic. There were lessons about anthropology, arson, ballistics, counterfeit money, death investigation, document and handwriting analysis, and fingerprints. After he spent his spare time for a day or so studying this, I gave him the first part of the mystery to solve.

In Something Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha, A Whodunnit Forensic Mystery, you are given a scenario, and have to figure out what happened and who did it. Students first get a brief introduction and a map of the area in which the incident happened, and the police report for the case. The police department was called to a fishing cabin, where they found a shed in flames, a body, and a lot of money. After studying this initial report, they are to ask for the witness statements they think might be helpful, and whatever other reports might help them figure out the case. They aren’t given a list of what is available—they have to figure out what to ask for based on the crime scene report! I found it a bit challenging to know how to guide this investigation, since I knew the whole story already but didn’t want to give any information away prematurely. It’s laid out very well, though, and I really appreciated the checklist of all the documents I had available to give him. The instructions are quite clear.

Mr. Intellectual spent about 7-8 hours on this project, not counting the time spent on the forensic evidence lessons. He pretty much knew who did the crime by the four-hour mark, but it took a long time to work out the details and figure out possible motives. Recording all the supporting evidence meant a lot of thinking and writing, which was very good for him.

See all the pages he had to work through:

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A few tips if you want to use this book: Buy the digital download rather than the physical book. You’ll want to be printing a lot of pages anyway. Print single-sided rather than double-sided, because it will be a lot easier to spread things out in front of you and compare notes. Also, it would be a good idea to do this in groups or teams so you can have two minds thinking about it. I asked a question once or twice to get him thinking in a different direction so he could solve the mystery, but as I said, since I knew the answers, I had to be very careful how I worded it. Having a partner who didn’t know would have been good, but none of the other boys was interested.

This made a great project during a week that we took off school a few weeks ago. It’s intensive enough that it would have been hard to fit in during a normal week, but makes a nice change-of-pace for a break. Incidentally, during that week a car crashed across the road from us in a high-speed police chase. Studying the tracks to see exactly where the car went gave the children some hands-on practice in forensics.

My final opinion? I would have preferred a scenario that didn’t involve murder, but I felt like this was valuable practice for my boy in searching out the truth of what happened, and thinking logically about evidence that he found. I know he really enjoyed it, and it was good for him.

One last thing to mention: I was given two offers to share with you!

Free Critical Thinking Puzzles!
A $75 Value! Delivered weekly to your inbox. Choose PreK – Grade 8. Sign Up Now!
https://www.criticalthinking.com/toscrew
Special Offer from CriticalThinking.com!
Free Shipping + 15% Off Any Size Order! Use Coupon Code: TOSCREW18. Expires 12/31/2018.

Critical Thinking, Understanding Math & Vocabulary {The Critical Thinking Co.™ Reviews} Crew Disclaimer

Filed Under: Activities at Home

Product Review–The Language Mechanic

June 14, 2022 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

I enjoy using products from The Critical Thinking Co.™. This time, I chose to use and review The Language Mechanic, which is designed for use by children ages 9-13, in grades 4-7. I received a PDF of this book, and have been printing sections of it for Mr. Sweetie (grade 7) and Mr. Imagination (grade 5) to work their way through. That’s something I really like about these digital books—I am allowed to print them as many times as I want to for as many of my own children. 

The Language Mechanic is intended to be used as a supplementary Language Arts resource, to help children learn grammar and punctuation. The first few lessons cover capitalization, run-ons, and sentence fragments, and then the lessons move on into using parts of speech correctly. During the past few days, my boys have been working on making sure pronouns agree with the nouns they replace, in both number and gender. The next section we’ll do discusses unnecessary words, and then we’ll start on a number of lessons about punctuation. Near the end of the book, there is a series of lessons about friendly letters, and then some work with spelling and vocabulary.

Each lesson begins with a funny mistake that could be made with writing a sentence. If you leave out a comma, or use the wrong pronoun, you can easily mislead your readers. Did the man really dive into the ice cream? Maybe a period would be helpful to break up a run-on sentence and make it make sense! Or, do you know babies who weigh 85 pounds?! It might sound better if you use the correct verb tense. Some of the sentences make us laugh. 

Next, the logic behind the rule under discussion is explained. Why do we need to use the correct verb tense? This is followed by two or three pages of practice sentences, in which the student needs to choose the correct word, or choose the sentence that matches up best with the given clues. Sometimes the child gets to choose a word for themselves. At the end of the lesson is a challenge, where they need to find the mistakes in a paragraph and correct them. After several lessons is a review, which covers the entire section. 

I have been reading the introduction to each lesson to my boys, although it is set up so that students should be able to understand it on their own. My boys have read it themselves a few times, when I was too busy to take the time for them, but they understand it better if I read over it with them. I usually watch them do the first couple of exercises, to make sure they understand what they are doing, and then they are on their own. They are both doing very well with this book. It is not thorough enough to be a stand-alone Language Arts course, but as a review or brush-up resource, I really like it. The silly sentences make it fun and keep the boys’ interest up. 

The Review Crew has been using several other products from The Critical Thinking Co.™. Click on the image below to read reviews of several other books! Or, if you would like to read my previous reviews of their products, go here. And, if you would like to try out some of their products before buying, they offer free PDFs of Math and Critical Thinking Worksheets. Just go here to find them!

Click here to read more reviews!

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, Homeschool Review Crew, Homeschooling

Review Crew—Blue Ribbon Awards

November 24, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Every year, the Homeschool Review Crew asks for votes on favorite reviews. I didn’t manage to get my votes in this year, but when I looked over the list of reviews we did this year, I realized this was our best year yet! I wrote 20 reviews, and 9 of them were for products that I liked well enough to continue using or use again. The Crew just posted their list of Blue Ribbon Awards, and I noticed that several of the winners were also among our favorites!2021-blue-ribbon-awards-pinterest-683x1024-1

I have been pulling Superstar Spelling out periodically to help Mr. Imagination practice spelling. I like that I can make up my own spelling lists for him with it, using words that he misspells in his regular work. When he’s using Superstar Spelling, he’s definitely more careful with writing his answers!

Teaching Textbooks turned out to be a perfect fit for Mr. Diligence for this, likely his last, year of high school. He did Geometry, and the video lectures worked well for him. By the end of the year, it was taking him two hours to work through one lesson, but he maintained a 92% average all year. I remember struggling with Geometry, even though math, in general, was easy for me, so I was very glad to have a course that worked so well for him. Teaching Textbooks is a math course that I will be happy to pay for in the future, for high school math. Teaching Textbooks was voted the favorite Middle School resource this year by the Crew.

My younger children loved One More Story. They spent a lot of time for awhile listening to books on it, and Little Miss was asking if she could use it again a few days ago. I like the selection of older, wonderful picture books on this site.

We’re still working our way through Sparkling Bits of Writing, from Creative Word Studio. I really like this creative writing course! Lessons don’t take very long, and they are quite varied. Each one is fresh and new, and requires creative thinking! We’re doing a lesson, on average, once a week.

We’re also still working through Project Passport: Ancient Egypt from Home School in The Woods. We started using this course in June, and are up to Stop 13 by now. We’re doing a stop about once every two weeks at the moment, which seems to be about right for us. I am liking the variety of activities that are used to teach about different aspects of Egyptian life, history and culture. Home School in the Woods was voted the favorite history/social studies resource by the Crew.

The Fallacy Detective is a very good book. We haven’t quite finished it; the goal was to read one lesson each evening, but after I got the review written we let life get in the way. We read one this week, though! It has made a difference in the way several of us think. We were talking to a friend a month or so ago, and twice during the conversation, as she was relating things other people had said, we identified fallacies. We also, now, more easily notice and identify fallacies in things we hear in the newspaper and from the government. This book is the favorite elective with the Crew.

Little Miss is still enjoying Beginning Thinking Skills from The Critical Thinking Company. We’re almost to the end of it now. She most enjoys the pages we can do on the computer; the ones that I print out for her to do something with are less popular, because they require work. She likes figuring out the puzzles.

I’m planning to use the Wagon Wheels Progeny Press guide again when Miss Joy is old enough. The trick will be remembering we have it! I really like that kind of study. Progeny Press was voted the favorite literature resource of the year by the Crew.

MathRider will continue to be used as extra practice for math facts, too. Even the speed drills and flashcard practice built into our regular math program isn’t enough to really get my children fast with their math, so I’m hoping MathRider will be a help. This was the favorite math supplement with the Crew this year.

From other years, there are a few review products that really stand out. We reviewed Let’s Go Geography twice, in 2017 and 2020. We’re still working our way through that course, a lesson every couple of weeks. We’re using Page a Day Math here during our summer break, for more practice with basic facts. As a family, we’re working our way through Experience Astronomy from Journey Homeschooling—we only have a few lessons left. I think everyone is finding it very interesting! We just finished going through Bible Unearthed from Drive Through History. When we first did the review, those of us who are at home every day went through most of the lessons; later, we started watching them in the evening so Gayle and the older boys could see them. Grammar Planet was also a winner. Elijah and Mr. Diligence both made it through the entire program, and I’m planning to buy it for Mr. Sweetie next year.

I’ve always had trouble fitting in “extras” like history and geography. A couple of months ago I changed tactics and, instead of trying to fit them all in every week, we’re rotating through them. We’re using Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics for science right now; it has 14 lessons, which are each a chapter of the book. We spend several days or a week working through one of those chapters, then do a writing lesson from Sparkling Bits of Writing. Then, we spend three days doing a geography lesson from Let’s Go Geography, then another writing lesson. Next, we spend a few days or a week doing a lesson about Ancient Egypt, and then another writing lesson. Then, the cycle starts over. So far, this is working well. We get in all the extras I want to do, and are able to focus on each subject for an entire lesson, but don’t get burned out on one subject. I don’t know if it would have worked with my older children, but with the three I’m teaching right now, it’s fairly popular!

To see what other programs or products won the Blue Ribbon Awards, check out this post. Also, if you have a blog, public Facebook page, YouTube channel, or Instagram page, and want to join the Homeschool Review Crew, fill out the application here. New members are always needed as families age out!

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, Homeschool Review Crew, Homeschooling, Product Review

Book Review—Mastering Logic & Math Problem Solving

June 10, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in
exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I
compensated in any other way.

When we were offered the opportunity to review a product from The Critical Thinking Co.™ , it wasn’t hard to decide that my boys would enjoy Mastering Logic & Math Problem Solving. Several of them enjoy puzzles, and even though the book is advertised for grades 6-9, I knew several of them outside that age range would like to try out the problems in the book.Critical Thinking 1

I didn’t use this book for formal classes. I just printed out several pages at a time and left them lay on the table until someone picked them up and started working on them. Mr. Intellectual (grade 11?) was probably the most interested, followed by Simon. Mr. Diligence (grade 9) is the only one within the range of this book. He isn’t the type to really get into this type of activity, but he did help solve a number of them. (This picture shows Simon working out the first set I printed.)03-IMG_6286

The first set of pages I printed out had to do with gettting various combinations of people, animals, or things across a bridge, or over a river in a boat, without anyone or anything getting eaten. Simon and Mr. Intellectual spent a Sunday afternoon working out all of those, and quickly discovered that they were all basically the same idea. 05-IMG_6290

Another week, I printed out a bunch of classical brain teasers. Several of the boys spent a couple of days mulling over the “nine dots” problem, in which they were supposed to draw four straight lines connecting all the dots. When they finally gave up and I checked the answer key, the answer was so obvious they were quite disgusted with themselves! Several of the other problems in this section, though were quite easy, and we enjoyed figuring out the answers. With the next several pages, I read out a number of the problems while dishes were being washed one evening, and we discussed them together. What fun to come up with answers to these riddles—the one we couldn’t quite figure out, though, was the lady giving a riddle to the census taker about the ages of her three children. The egg timer riddle was easy for Simon—and a great way to get him to practice his math skills a bit.

There are a lot of different types of math problems in this book. We didn’t get to the ones about ratios, proportions, percents, or even the algebra ones. I took a look at them, though, and they are fairly similar to the ones we get in our math books. That means that this book would be a great supplement for children who need more practice with algebra in real life situations. I can see us using these problems for races—who can solve them first? They would also be good for keeping up with math skills over the summer.

There are 193 pages in this book, and it is packed full of fun activities and puzzles that sharpen thinking and math skills. You can buy either the print version or the ebook for the same price; in my opinion, the ebook is more worthwhile because you can print as many copies as you want, for your own family—and it’s definitely worth getting!

Click on the image below to see what 65 other families are saying about their experiences with products from The Critical Thinking Co.™!

Creative Problem Solving, Dare to Compare Math, Mastering Logic & Math and Who Is This Kid? Colleges Want to Know! {The Critical Thinking Co.™ Reviews}

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, Homeschool Review Crew, Homeschooling

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The Family:


Dad and Mom (Gayle and Emma)

Girl #1, Esther, my right hand

Boy #1, Seth (Mr. Handyman)

Boy #2, Simon (Mr. Inventor)

Boy #3, Mr. Intellectual

Boy #4, Mr. Diligence

Boy #5, Mr. Sweetie

Boy #6, Mr. Imagination

Girl #2, Little Miss

Girl #3, Miss Joy

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