The Critical Thinking Co.™ (A Homeschool Crew Review)

One of the reasons I continue to homeschool my students is because it seems these days, students are taught the various tests that they must take to graduate from public schools.  This means they are expected to memorize and regurgitate a large amount of material, but they never really learn that material, much less learn to analyze the information and dig deeper into what that information means in both practical and real-life situations.

The Critical Thinking Co.™ understands that students need to develop their critical thinking skills in addition to just memorizing information.  Members of the crew have been reviewing their choice of 6 different workbooks from The Critical Thinking Co.™ with their students to work on these valuable skills.  Our family chose to review Dare to Compare Level 1, which asks students to use mathematical calculations to make comparisons and come to an ultimate decision to answer complicated word problem.

About The Critical Thinking Co.™

Established in 1958, The Critical Thinking Co.™ has set a goal of producing award-winning products that help students to achieve better academic results as they sharpen their reading, writing, math, science and history skills while improving their critical thinking abilities.  By creating lessons that require the student to analyze what they are reading and learning, their hopes is that students improve both their grades as well as test scores as they learn to analyze information and use higher critical thinking skills to apply that information to their classwork and lives.  The Critical Thinking Co.™ does not believe in drill and memorization but instead believe that the development of these critical thinking skills produces better results.


About Dare to Compare Level 1

Written for students Grades 4-5, Dare to Compare Level 1 is a 96-page digital download book that contains 50 pages of word problems as well as pages of hints and solutions for each of the problems.  (A physical workbook is also available for purchase for those who prefer.) Pages are in black/white greyscale format, making the workbook both easy and cost-efficient to print.

The digital workbook does require downloading an executable file to your computer running Windows 7, 8 or 10.  Currently, it is only available for the Windows OS but a Mac OS X version is currently in the works. 


To access the workbook, the executable file must be installed a serial number for proof of purchase must be entered to register the file.  Once installed and registered, simply click the icon to open the workbook and pages can be printed from the program.

Each problem is designed in such a way that students must work multiple steps to derive the answers necessary and then compare those answers to each other.  For example, the student might be asked to determine which jar has the most volume, but students must first determine the volume when they are told how much volume must be added to fill the jar.

Other questions might as for students to compare distances traveled by multiple vehicles at different speeds, to compare the square area of two pieces of land or to figure out the prices of items purchased.  Altogether, there are 150 individual questions for students to solve.

Since we are working with the digital version of the workbook, I was able to simply print out a few pages from the workbook each week and then we would work each problem out together, step by step, on our dry erase board.  We found this worked really well for us, as I could give the kids the dry erase marker and have them talk their way through working out the problems.

Dare to Compare Level 1 is considered a supplement and that's exactly how we decided to use it.  One could easily work through the workbook starting with the first question and then working straight to question 150 or you could pick and choose questions to coincide with current lessons for reinforcement of the material or even past lessons for a review.

Since Garrett and Ashleigh are currently learning Multiplication and Division, I tried to focus more on questions that focused on those particular skills.

On this particular problem, the kids had to calculate the total length of three wooden fences  and then determine which fence had the longest perimeter.

I've been very happy including these questions as part of math drills for the kids each day and the kids seem to enjoy them just as much.  Ashleigh has even said that they are "fun" and this is the kid who hates math almost as much as her mother does.  I really like how each question has multiple parts to it, making the kids actually think about what they have to do to figure out the final answer.  Overall, it's a great workbook to work on math skills and at a price of $10.59 (for either the digital or paperback version), it's a solid investment for a great math supplement.

For more information about The Critical Thinking Co.™ be sure to visit their website. You can also find them on the following social media sites:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCriticalThinkingCo
• Google+: https://plus.google.com/+TheCriticalThinkingCo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/criticalthinks
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/criticalthinks/

Also, The Critical Thinking Co.™ has a few special offers that I would like to bring to your attention.

Free Critical Thinking Puzzles!
This is a great way to "test drive" materials from The Critical Thinking Co.™ and get a good feel for them.  By signing up and choosing a grade level between PreK through Grade 8, you can have Free Critical Thinking Puzzles delivered to your inbox weekly.  This is a $75 Value! Sign Up at:
https://www.criticalthinking.com/toscrew

 
Special Offer from CriticalThinking.com!
Second, readers can get Free Shipping + 15% Off Any Size Order!  Simply use the coupon code: TOSCREW18 to get both discounts. This coupon expires on 12/31/2018.




While we reviewed Dare to Compare Level 1, members of the Crew were allowed to select their review item from 6 different selections that cover a large variety of subjects for all grade levels. Be sure to click the banner below to read the other Crew reviews today.

Language Smarts Level E (A Homeschool Crew Review)

We had the opportunity to review the physical copy of the Language Smarts™ Level E   workbook from The Critical Thinking Co.™.  A digital download of this workbook is also available from The Critical Thinking Co. website.

Language Arts Level E can be used as a complete curriculum or as a supplement to be used with Grade 4 students.  The softback workbook is 392 pages designed to improve reading, writing, spelling, punctuation, grammar, and thinking skills through various activities.  From starting with the basics such as recognizing the amount of syllables in a given word to progressing to writing three different style papers (Personal Narratives, Opinion and Informative writing), Language Arts Level E seamlessly progresses through all points in between while covering important skills such as parts of speech, punctuation, reading skills, and sentence structure. The workbook covers all grammar concepts that are expected to be known by fourth graders, as well as also including some skills that are taught in fifth grade. Each activity starts with a quick explanation of the concept being taught as well as demonstrate the concept in easy to understand examples in well marked charts.  Everything needed is included and easy to follow, making preparation for each lesson simple.


Specifically, the Level E workbook covers the following topics:

• Capitalization	• Prefixes, Suffixes, Roots
• Critical Thinking	• Silent E
• Compare/Contrast	• Singular/Plural
• Imply/Infer	• Syllables
• Inference	• Usage
• Opinion	• Homographs
• Prediction	• Homophones
• Adjectives	• Metaphors
• Adverbs	• Sequencing
• Antonyms	• Similes
• Conjunctions	• Writing
• Interjections	• Characters
• Nouns	• Comparing
• Prepositions	• Conflict
• Pronouns	• Context Clues
• Sentences	• Drama
• Subject and Predicate	• Editing
• Subject-Verb Agreement	• Fiction and Nonfiction
• Synonyms	• Idioms
• Verbs	• Parts of a Book
• Grammar	• Plot
• Punctuation	• Poems
• Colons	• Proverbs
• Commas	• Reference Materials
• Exclamation Marks	• Setting
• Periods	• Story Maps
• Question Marks	• Table of Contents
• Quotation Marks	• Titles
• Semicolons	• Topic and Main Idea
• Spelling	• Using a Dictionary
• Compound Words

I was a bit apprehensive originally about whether or not my kids would be able to use this workbook or not before selecting this particular book for reviewing. Fortunately, The Critical Thinking Co. has sample pages for their products which allowed me to have a better idea of how the workbook was laid out.  This allowed me to judge much easier whether or not the material would be something my kids would be able to handle.  Even thought my children are both third grade, these sample pages allowed for me to determine that this workbook would be something I could easily use with them based on their learning level.  

One of the first things I absolutely love about this workbook is the reproduction agreement that the Critical Thinking Co. allows with their printed materials.  The Critical Thinking Co. allows for families who purchase their workbooks to make copies for other students in their family.  This is always something I love to see from companies and can be a "make or break" when I'm making decisions on curriculum as it tends to offset the cost of a more pricey curriculum (in this case, $42.99 for this particular workbook).  Since both Ash and Garrett use the same curriculum, if I am able to make copies of the material instead of having to buy two separate workbooks, that's always a plus for me. 

Another thing that I really like about this book is that there's a wonderful Table of Contents that allows for me to find exactly what I need to print out.  If we're discussing Adverbs, I can quickly find Adverbs in the table of contents and see which pages apply to that topic so that I can quickly turn to those particular pages and print them out for the kids.  This is extremely helpful when dealing with a hefty 392 page workbook.  Anything that saves time makes a huge difference in our homeschool. 

In addition to the Table of Contents, the end of the workbook includes the Answer Key for every activity in the book.  There's nothing more annoying then to purchase a pricey workbook and have to purchase a separate answer key booklet (that might cost 10 to 20 dollars more) to be able to grade the activities. 

So far, I have used this book as a supplement to our current English/Grammar curriculum.  However, as impressed as I have been with the activities in the book, I've been giving serious consideration to instead begin to use this workbook as our full time curriculum after the holidays are over.

To learn more about The Critical Thinking Co. and their large array of educational material, be sure to visit their website or one of their various social media sites:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Critical-Thinking-Co/46128092293 

Google+: https://plus.google.com/114500823774999703181 

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/source/criticalthinking.com/ 

Math Analogies Beginning (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

Many homeschool families might be familiar with the Math Analogies Beginning book: a reproducible workbook for grades K-1 where the student is presented with a series of pictures and has to pick a fourth picture that falls into a specific thought presented by the first two pictures. (If A=B then C=D.)   The Critical Thinking Co.has taken this series to a new platform by introducing a software version of their popular workbook. The kids and I had the opportunity to use and review Math Analogies Beginning software available for the Windows platform over the last few weeks and were really impressed with it.


When it comes to teaching our kids mathematics, we tend to see only addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems but fail to think about critical thinking skills. Having children solve analogies helps to make new and unfamiliar concepts more meaningful to students by connecting what they already know to what they are learning.  Teaching these skills at an early level will carry though with them through higher levels of not only mathematics but all subjects of study.  The Critical Thinking Co. understands the importance of these skills and have developed the series of both the workbooks and the software for grades K-7th (The software currently follows to grade 5 with a workbook covering grades 6-7).

What we received:

Math Analogies – Beginning Software for Windows Download
Purchase of this award winning software allows for downloading and registering it to two computers (an option for 6 computers is also available on their website) using the serial number sent by The Critical Thinking Co. The download is currently only for the Windows PC platform, however there is also a version available for both Ipad and Android tablets. An fully functional online browser based demo is available on their website.  
The software consists of 152 analogy styled problems that fit the grade-appropriate standards identified by the National Council of Teaching Mathematics. The question is presented and beneath  is four possible answer choices. Students must click and drag their selected answer up to complete the analogy.  The questions can be answered at a pace comfortable to the student and will autosave and allow to resume where they last left off.  After the student finishes the first attempt at the 152 problems, the program will tell the student how many questions they completed on that attempt as well as show a percentage as to how many they got correct. It will then allow the student to answer the questions they got incorrect on the next attempt. The student is given a total of 4 attempts to answer all the questions correctly. However, if after 4 attempts all the questions have not been answered correctly, the program can be reset and a new attempt from the beginning can be made.   Questions can be reviewed to see which ones were correct and which ones were incorrect.

How we used it:

I found that the program did not use much resources on my computer and ran extremely smooth. Installation was easy and quick. In the weeks that we used the program we did not experience any unstableness or crashing. It ran as it was meant to run and had no issues whatsoever.
Since I have two kids that are both 1st graders, it works really well for us to hook my laptop up to my television so that both kids can see the screen well.  Three times a week, we would work on a set of 20 problems – 10 for each child.  The kids enjoyed working on the analogies and many times my youngest would get upset that she couldn’t answer more than her 10 questions for the day.   Each session of 20 questions took us only about 10 minutes total and much of that was spent sounding out words that they did not know.
 

Final Thoughts and Impressions:

The first thing I should point out is that this software is a digital copy of the workbook with the same 152 problems. However, if your child is a more visual learner, like my son, who dislikes anything printed in a book, this is a great alternative for introducing critical thinking skills.  My kids really enjoyed the problems but I did feel that they were too easy for my kids and I would have been better off selecting a higher level for them.  Together they only missed a combined total of 4 on their first attempt and none on other attempts and  the four they originally missed  were because they selected a random answer so that they didn't have to read certain words. The Beginnings level would probably be great for a Gifted Pre-K and an Average Kindergartner but unless your first grader is lagging behind,  I would suggest the Math Analogies Level 1 for grades 2-3 (also available on the same platforms) to make your student work a bit harder.  (Or maybe, just maybe, my kids are further along then I give them credit for lol)

Overall, my kids really liked what they dubbed “Owl Math” (the mascot of this series being a wise looking owl in a wizards hat) and I believe this makes for a really great distraction when kids are frustrated with their other lessons. My kids viewed this more as a game rather than actual schoolwork and play it even though they have completed it a few times now using the reset option.  The program does not take up much space on the hard drive, does not require much RAM to run, runs smoothly and does not crash, all important factors when considering software. It’s also a very easy program for younger children to manipulate once they understand the mechanics and would be a great exercise for learning to use a mouse as well.  It is also a very quiet program, no music or sound effects to distract your child from what they should be doing.  Overall, I can found it a very useful tool in my homeschooling repertoire and considering how much my children enjoyed it, I will definitely continue with this series.
Both the workbook and software versions of all the Math Analogies series can be purchased at The Critical Thinking Co. website. In addition to their website, The Critical Thinking Co can also be found on the following social media site: Facebook, Google +, Twitter, and Pinterest.