Think Child, Think!

Higher test scores, here we come! An oft-repeated mantra in our house is “Think child, think!” While the Building Thinking Skills series may not help your kids remember to brush their teeth in the morning, it will help them to use their noggins to think through school stuff.

The Critical Thinking Company has been teaching thinking skills in core subject areas for fifty years. What is critical thinking anyway? “Critical thinking is identifying and evaluating evidence to guide decision making. A critical thinker uses in-depth analysis of evidence to make decisions and communicate his beliefs clearly and accurately.” Isn’t that what we as homeschoolers want for our kids? I sure do! I want my kids to think through not only test answers, but also life decisions. I want to raise independent learners. Using Building Thinking Skills will help accomplish these goals.

The hefty workbooks can be photocopied for use within your own family, making the $29.99 a worthwhile investment. My fifth grader test-drove Level 2 for grades 4–6. She looked forward to her assignments and breezed through them every day. My ninth grader, who has unhappily used other logic curricula, happily worked on the Level 3 Verbal book. The books are incremental and teach skills in a non-threatening manner. Kids have so much fun completing the assignments that they don’t even realize they’re learning critical thinking skills they’ll use throughout their lives.