Jan. 1, 2009 - The Critical Thinking Company
I had a chance to recieve and review Building Thinking Skills - Primary (K-1) put out by Critical Thinking.
In this edition, there are many other books for the other grade levels up to high school, there are 435 activities covering:
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similarities and differences
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writing skills
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vocabulary
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classifying
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describing
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analogies
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occupations/vehicles/buildings
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plants and animals
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family members
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number sense
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geometry
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and much more
contained within 272 colorful and delightful pages and retails for $29.99 (other editions are the same or less). The book does use attribute blocks, which you can purchase from Critical Thinking for $20.99 or search online for free printable ones. Purchasing them would be a good idea if you have several children who would use them over the course of homeschooling.
This could be used as an all bases covered curriculum, at least from what I see of the younger grades and would make a good curriculum for the younger student. The subjects covered in the Primary level are reading, tracing, write about, math, science and social studies. While there were some areas of the book that were fine for my 6 year old 2nd grader (in regular school she would be in 1st so technically falling in line with the grade level for this book) I should have used with my 4 year old, but even some of the copy work (tracing) would be too advanced. I think it depends, like most other curriculum, where the child is at in relation to what is being studied and how mature the child is.
Overall I am realy impressed by this level and book with a thick, laminated cover for protection and added strength for repeated uses, it's a great value. The Critical Thinking Companies website is easy to get around and view their other high quality products, you can save money by buying a bundle pack as well. So if you'd like to see more of their levels hop on over to The Critical Thinking Company website and check out their other products.
