What products from The Critical Thinking Company have you used and liked?

[kortney in AL]

I got a catalog from them yesterday. All their products look so good, but so expensive! Are there any of their products that you loved and would use again, or those that you think made a big improvement in your child's abilities?

[Guest]

Reading Detective! Hands down, it has been wonderful for my guys. I plan on using Science Detective and Word Roots from them, as well at some point. Oh, and maybe Editor in Chief.

[TrixieB]

My dc like the Mindbenders books.

[mktkcb]

We have used and loved a number of their products. All my kids have gone through all of some of the BTS books. my kids have used and enjoyed the reading detective software, word roots software, logic spiders software, punctuation puzzler software, and maybe a couple others. These are GREAT programs for the most part. I may be getting the BTS software for my ds next year, and maybe 1 or 2 others (science detective? not sure.) Oh, and we've used the mindbenders books also. Sigh......I love their stuff. Its addictive, but I tend to only get stuff at the conference every year, and it is usually discounted a bit there. Have fun.

Kayleen

[Beth in Central TX]

I really like the Editor in Chief software. It has helped my oldest become more aware of his own common grammatical errors; not all of them, but most.

[Lori D.]

But, while their products are good, I feel many are very expensive "one trick ponies" (a big price for puzzles all of the same type), and you can sometimes find similar, less expensive products elsewhere -- and ones with more variety of types of problem solving, too.

 

Here are Critical Thinking Press books we liked:

- Dr. Funster's Think-A-Minutes (gr. 3-6)

- Dr. Funster's Creative Thinking Puzzlers (gr. 3-6)

- Think-A-Grams (gr. 7-12)

The Red Herring books were okay -- though some of the solutions seemed lame to us, and we often (at least to us!) came up with more clever or more plausible answers.

 

 

Other things we've enjoyed for developing critical thinking and logic skills are listed below; wasn't sure of what ages you're looking for, so I included the "whole enchilada" of resources (lol). Most are available through:

- http://www.rainbowresource.com

- http://www.amazon.com

- http://www.prufrock.com

 

Enjoy your critical thinking adventures! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

grade K-3

 

workbooks:

- Critical Thinking Activities in Pattern, Image, Logic (gr. 1-3) -- by Seymour

- Logic Safari (book 1 = gr. 2-3; book 2 = gr. 3-4)

- Lollipop Logic (gr. K-2)

- Primarily Logic (gr. 2-4)

- Connections series (by grade level)

 

puzzle books:

- Gifted and Talented series (K-4 gr.) -- by Amerikander, or others

- Puzzlemania series (gr. 1-5) -- best of Highlights magazine variety of puzzles

- Hidden Picture Puzzle books -- collection of hidden picture puzzles from Highlights

 

software:

- Logic Journey of the Zoombinis (by grade level)

- Revenge of the Logic Spiders (by grade level)

- Crazy Contraptions series (gr. 3+)

- Operation: Neptune (gr. 3-6)

- Mission: T.H.I.N.K. (gr. 2-6)

 

games:

- Set

- Duo

- Secret Door

- Blokus

- Scan (old Parker Brothers game, usually available on ebay)

- Clue

 

solo logic activities:

- Logix

- Scramble Squares

- Tangrams

- Rush Hour Junior

 

simple puzzle pages:

- mazes

- word searches

- Where's Waldo

- search and find type of books

 

 

 

gr. 4-6 (prep for logic)

 

logic books:

- Dandylion Logic series:

1. Logic Countdown = gr. 3-4

2. Logic Liftoff = gr. 4-5

3. Orbiting with Logic = gr. 5-7

- Logic Safari series (book 2 = gr. 3-4; book 3 = gr. 5-6)

- Connections series (by grade level)

 

workbooks:

- Mindbenders

- Perplexors (like Mendbenders)

- Puzzlemania series (gr. 1-5)

- Dr. Funster Think-A-Minutes (gr. 3-6)

- Dr. Funster's Creative Thinking Puzzlers (gr. 3-6)

- Critical Thinking Activities in Pattern, Image, Logic (gr. 4-6) -- by Seymour

 

software:

- Logic Journey of the Zoombinis (by grade level)

- Revenge of the Logic Spiders (by grade level)

- Crazy Contraptions series (gr. 3+)

- Operation: Neptune (gr. 3-6)

- Mission: T.H.I.N.K. (gr. 2-6)

 

games:

- Mastermind

- Amazing Labrynth

- 221 B. Baker Street

- Checkers

- Chess

- Boggle

- Scrabble

- Quarto

 

puzzle pages:

- mazes

- crosswords, word jumbles, anagrams

- codes, cryptograms

- sudoku puzzles

 

books (solving "whodunnits"):

- Encyclopedia Brown series (Sobol)

- Roman Mysteries series (Lawrence)

- 17th century Japanese boy and samurai mysteries by Dorothy Hoobler

- Nancy Drew series (Keene)

- Hardy Boys series (Dixon)

- minute mystery books by Conrad, Sobol, Weber, and others

 

 

gr. 7-8 (intro to logic)

 

critical thinking books:

- Mindbenders

- Perplexors (like Mindbenders)

- Word Winks; More Word Winks (like Think-A-Grams) -- pub. by Mindware

- Plexors, More Plexers (like Think-A-Grams) -- by Seymour

- Critical Thinking Activities in Pattern, Image, Logic (gr. 7-12) -- by Seymour

- 10-Minute Critical-Thinking Activities for Englishy (gr. 5-12) -- by Eaton; Walch Pub.

- 10-Minute Critical-Thinking Activities for Algebra (gr. 9-12) -- by Martin; Walch Pub.

 

logic books:

- Art of Argument (Larson/Hodge)

- Fallacy Detective; Thinking Toolbox (Bluedorn)

 

games:

- Checkers

- Chess

- Boggle

- Scrabble

- Quarto

- Tetrus

- Risk

- other strategy computer/board games

 

puzzle pages:

- crosswords, word jumbles, anagrams

- codes, cryptograms

- sudoku puzzles

 

solving "whodunnits"

[Nestof3]

Wow -- thanks for the amazing list, Lori! :D

[merylvdm]

I really like Get me Out of Here! We have the CD Rom version (I bought it used, so not so expensive) and it teaches Map SKills and teaches kids to pay attention to instructions.

Meryl