Happily Homeschooling

The Critical Thinking Co. Review

Critical thinking is so essential in many areas of life. Another term for this, in my opinion, is common sense. It is, therefore, essential to teach our children how to build this skill. The Critical Thinking Co. offers many products to accomplish this. They have been in business for more than 50 years offering products to students to help improve grades, sharpen the mind, and have fun. According to the website they now offer “over 200 titles in reading, writing, math, science and history, and remains a family-owned business…”.

We received the curriculum Building Thinking Skills Level 1, designed for grades 2-3. The intent of this book is to develop vocabulary, reading, mathematical reading, and analytical skills. When we first opened it, my son said “cool, can I do some”, because it looks mostly like games or a fun pad. But, upon further examination, the activities are actually increasing abstract thinking as the “children learn to analyze relationships between objects, between words, and between objects and words”. The book is incredible. We have used products from The Critical Thinking Co. before, but have not used the larger curriculum books (Building Thinking Skills is 363 pages). I was impressed with all that is in this book.

Just a few of the activities inside are:

• Logical Thinking
• Similarities & Differences
• Classifications
• Analogies
• Spatial Awareness
• Geometry Concepts
• Map Reading
• Sequences

There is even an answer guide, just in case. You can view sample pages here.

This book really is fantastic and at $29.99, it’s a great buy. You may also find some other great products at their website. They even have a “try before you buy” section with software demos and printables. Check it out here.

You can read other reviews from the TOS Crew here.