Share your experiences with Critical Thinking Company materials!

[seewah]

This year I am looking to beef up the critical thinking skills portion of our curriculum. My two oldest recently had a battery of IQ and standardized testing done. The administrator of the tests then made recommendations for curriculum based on their levels/learning styles. A HUGE portion of the recommendations are items from the Critical Thinking Company. (I know. This list is insane. That is why I need to pare it down!)

 

Here is what is recommended:

 

Upcoming 6th grader

Reading Detective A-1 book

Reading Detective 1-1 cd

Punctuation Puzzler Run Ons A-1

Word Roots A-1 book

Word Roots A-1 cd

Word Roots B-1 book

Word Roots B-1 cd

Punctuation Puzzler Commas A-1 book

Editor in Chief Beginning book

Editor in Chief A-1 book

Editor in Chief A-2 book

Novel Thinking Lesson Guides

Spelling DooRiddles B-1 book

Dr. DooRiddles B-1 book

Dr. DooRiddles B-2 book

Riddle Spiders B-1 cd

Revenge of the Math Spiders A-1 cd

Math Blockout! Fundamental Operations cd

Math Detective A-1 book

Math Detective A-1 cd

Math Analogies Book 2

Scratch Your Brain B-1 book

Science Detective Beginning book

Science Detective Beginning cd

Developing Critical Thinking Through Science Book 2

Building Thinking Skills Book 3 Figural/Verbal books

Building Thinking Skills Verbal teacher cd

Memory Challenge cd

Mindbenders B-1 book

Mindbenders B-2 book

Get Me Out of Here A-1 software

Creative Thinking Puzzlers A-1 book

Balance Benders Beginning book

 

Upcoming 3rd grader:

Dr. DooRiddles B-1

Riddle Spiders A-1

Language Smarts Level C

The Language Mechanic

Word Roots A-1 book

Word Roots A-1 cd

Punctuation Puzzler Commas A-1 book

Punctuation Puzzler Commas A-1 cd

Mathematical Reasoning Level D book

Math Analogies Book 1

Developing Critical Thinking Through Science Book 1

Building Thinking Skills Level 1 book

Dr. DooRiddles A-3 book

Memory Challenge cd

Mindbenders Warmup book

Mindbenders A-1 book

Visual Perceptual Skill Building Book 2

Can You Find Me K-1 book

Thinker Doodles Clues and Choose A-1 book

Thinker Doodles Half n Half Animals A-1 book

Hands on Thinking Skills book

Balance Benders Beginning book

 

Upcoming Kindergartner:

Mathematical Reasoning Level A book

Math Analogies Beginning book

Building Thinking Skills Primary

Dr. DooRiddles A-1 book

Dr. DooRiddles A-2 book

Memory Challenge cd

Visual Perceptual Skill Building Book 1

Can You Find Me PreK book

Mindbenders Beginning 1 book

 

 

Also recommended was Brain Builder for the 3rd and 6th grader. This retails for $200. Is it a good program?

 

 

I am really struggling to figure out what Critical Thinking Company products are more of a priority than others.

 

 

Also, we downloaded a few demos of the software last night and we were not very impressed. I am wary of ordering software that won't perform correctly ... or will be out of date in a year or two. At least with the books, I can continue to pass them down to the next child!

 

 

Thank you for advice and opinions on these products! :)

[rafiki]

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[robsiew]

We like Mindbenders here, but my 3rd grader has almost finished all the 3-6th grade books and I don't think he's ready for the 7-12th... so I'll be interested to see what others say...:bigear:

 

I do have to say, I think Mindbenders are a bit overpriced for what you get. My ds would zip through a $10 book in a week if I let him... also, they are the same type of puzzle all the way though... would be nice to have some variety.

[Matryoshka]

We've used a ton of CT press materials. I have a weekly/biweekly packet of worksheets I copy from them (and other books). This was much less overwhelming fot them than giving them a stack of books and saying to do a page in each (and then I only have to buy one book). If you have only one kid or don't have a good copier, that wouldn't work as well, though. Doing a page in most books every 1-2 weeks will get you through them in a year.

 

Here are the ones I've used and liked enough to continue through the whole series. I've only bought books, not software:

 

Math Detective

Science Detective

Editor in Chief

Doo Riddles (well, I think we didn't do the last book)

Spelling Doo Riddles

 

Others we've used, but not the whole series:

Punctuation Puzzlers - liked these, but one year was enough

Mindbenders - great, but Grid Perplexors from Mindware are the same puzzles and you get 50 per book instead of 15. The Beginning books would be good for your youngest, though - they have more puzzles (30) than the later books and use pictures.

Word Roots - well, I'm still using this and liked it well enough, but the retention wasn't great. We now use MCT vocabulary as our main program, and retention is excellent - I still give a WR sheet a week 'cause I own them. :tongue_smilie:

 

And the then there are the ones that didn't work for us:

Building Thinking Skills - I should've gotten the software. The book is a doorstop. The software would've been better.

Visual Perception - Got it on CD, never printed it out. Could be great, don't know.

Organizing Thinking - ditto - got it, never used it.

 

Oh, and my dd did like the Can You Find Me books when she was preK/K.

[justasque]

Editor in Chief is a 30-ish page book of editing problems. They are an excellent supplement to any grammar curriculum that does not include editing. I have used, for example, Easy Grammar + EIC for several kids and been very pleased. We did one page a week for a year. However, if your grammar curriculum already includes editing, you can skip this one.

 

What you have listed is a LOT of stuff. I cannot imagine that they were suggesting you use all of it. You'd never get through it all. They are all designed to do different things - reading comprehension, editing for grammar and spelling, logic-type puzzles, etc. You need to decide which skills you want to focus on to narrow down your list.

[motherdear]

Reading Detective

Editor in Chief

Building Thinking Skills

 

and Descriptive Mysteries is lots of fun!

[michmom]

We have tried many of these and MindBenders have by far been the most popular at all ages - they are grid logic puzzles. As someone mentioned, Perplexors are similar. You can copy them so you can use them for another child or put a transparency sheet over the page and use a vis-a-vis marker on the transparency so the page is not marked on and then use the book again for the second child. We have also used the CDs for many of these and not had any problems.

 

Lynn

[....]

I think I know exactly why they recommended that you use the CTC materials. :glare: I did about an hour of reading the other day about standardized testing, "Study Island" and the CT Company.

 

Seems the CTC materials are written almost entirely to standardized testing...:glare:

 

I looked over the topics from the 3rd grade CTC books and also the kinds of questions on the TAKS and ITBS. You would be correct in using CTC to up your kids standardized testing scores.

 

Bummer that you have to test... I would not use CTC as your entire curriculum, though. The list they gave you was nuts. You're right, you'll have to pick and choose.

 

I do like Editor in Chief, but the software got really bad reviews on Amazon. We also use Mind Benders, but it's not something I would concentrate on...

 

Sorry to hear about your standardized testing woes. I'm really glad we don't have to go through that here in Texas.

[deeinfl]

Oh my, does she work for the company! (just kidding :lol:)

 

I would use the Building Thinking Skills book (at her level)

One Mindbender book

and one Reading Detective or EIC if your English program is lacking in these skills and that's all!

 

Where will you ever find time to do anything else with all these workbooks?

 

HTH,

 

Dee

 

ps those are the three that I purchased to help my son with thinking skills but we will only use them after our basics are covered and only once or twice a week. ;)

[Ali in OR]

My 5th grader will be using Editor in Chief and Reading Detective this year. Both kids have Mind Benders books just for fun this summer.

[strawberry]

Are what these companies offer considered "logic?" I was under the impression that they were but have yet to research it.

[....]

Are what these companies offer considered "logic?" I was under the impression that they were but have yet to research it.

 

They do have some logic stuff, but they actually have stuff from almost every subject. I have their brochure here somewhere... OK, they have Reading/Grammar/Punctuation/Spelling/Vocab and they have Math/Science. They also have a Logical Thinking category. Their stuff covers grades 1-12. I really like the look of their Editor in Chief workbook and I've used Mind Benders. It says, "Better Grades and Higher Test Scores - Guaranteed!!"

 

Like I said, I did a bunch of reading about standardized testing and if you really wanted to UP your student's testing scores, THIS company's stuff would be the thing to use. I was actually kinda disturbed when I was reading through these websites about standardized testing, though. I felt sad because administrators are becoming too focused on these tests. Unfortunately, our kids won't be getting into college without taking these kinds of tests, so I guess we have to work with it.

 

If I had to narrow down my selection (and we just don't have time for any more curricula), I think I would look at Language Smarts, Reading Detective, Editor in Chief, Science Detective and Math Detective. Like I said, on Amazon - there were horrible reviews about their programs with software. They said their workbooks were pretty good, though.

 

Maybe someone on here has tried the software and can tell us if it's any good or not...

 

Oh well, good luck, Everybody. :001_smile:

[Tidbits of Learning]

This year I am looking to beef up the critical thinking skills portion of our curriculum. My two oldest recently had a battery of IQ and standardized testing done. The administrator of the tests then made recommendations for curriculum based on their levels/learning styles. A HUGE portion of the recommendations are items from the Critical Thinking Company. (I know. This list is insane. That is why I need to pare it down!)

 

 

 

Ok, my first question would be how did your children test? My next would be, do you plan to drop all that you are doing now and use only Critical Thinking Company books?

I agree that these books will bring up test scores and if that is your goal, then I would start these books in order beginning with the first level of each. However, if you are just wanting to up their critical thinking skills, then I would probably just go with the Building Thinking Skills series.

You wouldn't need individual math, science, vocabulary...to build up their critical thinking.

Personally, I don't think teaching to the test helps gain actual skills. It just makes you a better test taker. I would add a thinking skills book not the super list of workbooks that they gave you to purchase to bring up test scores.

[Mom0012]

I've used a number of the CTC products over the years -- Dr. Dooriddles, Mindbenders and the BTS workbooks when my kids were real young and, more recently, BTS and Reading Detective software. I like the BTS software, but I wasn't thrilled with the Reading Detective software. It was okay, though, and my daughter really enjoys working on the computer, so I chose that format for her again this year.

 

I do think that a lot of the CTC products are aimed at improving standardized test scores and while we use them, they are pretty much last on my list of things to do and we don't spend more than a couple of times a week working on them usually. My kids are each working on the BTS software for 15 minutes a day this summer just because I want them to fiinish it up. They enjoy it, but I'm not sure how much it is really benefitting them or not.

 

I do like Dr. DooRiddles. My son has a language disorder and it really got him thinking. I may pick up another level of that for him. I also purchased the Mindbenders software for the upcoming year. As I said, I used the workbook in the past and I thought that was good. I kind of wish I had gotten the workbooks again for that rather than the software.

 

But NO WAY would I use that list you were given. Pick one or two things to supplement what you are doing and keep it at that.

 

Lisa

[seewah]

Ok, my first question would be how did your children test? My next would be, do you plan to drop all that you are doing now and use only Critical Thinking Company books?

I agree that these books will bring up test scores and if that is your goal, then I would start these books in order beginning with the first level of each. However, if you are just wanting to up their critical thinking skills, then I would probably just go with the Building Thinking Skills series.

You wouldn't need individual math, science, vocabulary...to build up their critical thinking.

Personally, I don't think teaching to the test helps gain actual skills. It just makes you a better test taker. I would add a thinking skills book not the super list of workbooks that they gave you to purchase to bring up test scores.

 

Both kids tested in the extremely high (or extremely superior) area for almost everything. The "weak area" (critical thinking) scores were still many grades ahead of what grade they are are actually in!

 

My middle child needs to work on "coding" and "mazes" ... those were his two weak areas.

 

Honestly, I do love many of the CT books ... HOWEVER, we have a VERY full curriculum w/o those materials (and honestly, the kids are doing fabulously!) ... so I have really questioned the need for all the additional CT materials.

 

I so appreciate everyone weighing in on what has been a hit or useful at their house. I think we will definitely use the Building Thinking Skills books. Maybe I'll just order some for the summer and we'll use them then! I honestly don't know how we would afford all those books or how we would fit them into our already-long-enough school day! :)

[KarenNC]

Subbing to the thread because I just picked up Editor in Chief A-2 used to work with my rising 5th grader on punctuation and grammar skills (in addition to MCT Town level and Caught Ya: Grammar with a Giggle----plan to use EIC once we finish Caught Ya).

 

I have also looked at the Building Thinking Skills for her, level 3. What's the feeling on figural and verbal---is one required before the other or does it not matter? I planned on doing verbal, not sure about figural. Her vocabulary, spelling and reading comprehension is light years ahead of her punctuation and grammar.*sigh* Is the figural one considered more math skills than verbal? She is also light years ahead in verbal skills over math skills, though she's best in math at things like geometry topics.

[....]

Personally, I don't think teaching to the test helps gain actual skills. It just makes you a better test taker.

 

I completely agree with you. Our core curriculum is Sonlight and unfortunately, I think if my kids saw a standardized test... I'm afraid they would read it, discuss it, make a painting of it, create several lapbooks, write a haiku poem about it and create their own Snap Circuit lesson where the musical doorbell sings about it. Our school district would think we were insane.

 

:glare:

 

We're so weird.

[amyrjoy]

I completely agree with you. Our core curriculum is Sonlight and unfortunately, I think if my kids saw a standardized test... I'm afraid they would read it, discuss it, make a painting of it, create several lapbooks, write a haiku poem about it and create their own Snap Circuit lesson where the musical doorbell sings about it. Our school district would think we were insane.

 

:glare:

 

We're so weird.

 

:lol: love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

i am a bit overwhelmed by this thread! LOL! good luck to the "op." i've been wondering what to get for my kids this coming year so will keep looking at this thread.

[....]

:lol: LOL!

[jec3113]

Building Thinking Skills and Word Roots. Those would be my picks.

[Alessandra]

We have tried 4-5 of CTC's materials and prefer those from Prefrock Press. http://www.prufrock.com/

 

ditto. Nothing wrong with CT, but they are expensive. Prufrock Press are very similar and much more affordable.

 

We also like Stepping Stones by EPS -- really out-of-the-box thinking!