I think everyone knows by now how very much we LOVE the Critical Thinking Company at our house.

I was ever-so-thrilled to be chosen to review yet another of their products. With all of their products that we have used and love, we have never had the chance to see or use Mathematical Reasoning. We received Level C, which is labeled for Grade 2.

Taylor is a bit above this level, but really seemed to enjoy looking through the book for review. She said "this doesn't really seem like math, are you sure this is really a math book?" She particularly enjoyed the way it incorporated "boring old problems" into fun exercises, like completing a dot to dot picture by finding the answers to addition problems. Morgan mentioned that she sure wished she had been able to work in this book when she was doing second grade work!

This book can be used for a core curriculum, or as a supplement, as it is written to the standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

 Taylor and I both immediately commented on how colorful and "fun" the pages looked. Most of our math so far has been boring old black and white problems with no illustrations, so this book is really a treat for the visual learner.

The book covers a wide variety of the typical subjects one would expect a second grade math program to cover. You can see the list here. It follows the same critical thinking style of focusing more on "how" to solve the problem than just getting the answer. This book helps children devise strategies to solve a wide variety of math problems.

You can see samples of the activities here.

I was so impressed by this series and have really been trying very hard to find some appropriate learning materials for Levi, that I ordered  Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 1 for age 3, and Beginning 2 for age 4. I also received the Beginning Mathematical Reasoning book which is for ages 3 and 4 in the preschool  book bundle(which includes 9 of their awesome preschool age books)I decided to purchase to use with Levi.

Now these preschool Mathematical Reasoning books are truly some of the greatest preschool material I've ever laid my eyes on. Levi was soooo excited to have his own schoolbooks; I was thrilled beyond words when he was pointing out the colors and shapes and having so much fun answering the questions correctly. To tell you the truth, I wasn't really sure what he would and wouldn't know as far as answering questions, and I was truly surprised and proud at his understanding of putting together the colors, shapes, and numbers, and especially his listening skills for finding the correct combinations asked for.

I just can't tell you how much we love these Mathematical Reasoning books. I'm so especially grateful to have found these preschool ones, as they are just exactly what I needed for my little guy.

I have never been disappointed with anything I've received from the Critical Thinking Company! 

The Level C Mathematical Reasoning book can be purchased on the Critical Thinking website for $32.99, and the Pre-K ones for $29.99.

If you don't already have many of their resources, and are looking for a really great combination of things for a certain grade level, I highly recommend checking out the book bundles ; especially if you are looking for some really cool stuff for your preschooler to do!

We don't have much of their software, so I think that might just be our next big Critical Thinking adventure!

Go think with your kids!

Chris