Logic?

[twoxcell]

Can anyone talk to me about Logic as a subject? My ds will be in 5th grade next year. Is that a good time for adding logic in or should we wait? If you think 5th is a good age to start, do you have any suggestions for me?

[Lori D.]

That's a great age to be regularly incorporating critical thinking and logic puzzles and questions! :) Below are some resources to get you started. You might also find these recent threads helpful: "Does anyone do 3 hours of Logic per week in the Logic Stage? And if not how much Logic is proper?" -- a lot of good discussion on Logic as a subject, plus you can see how a number of people "did" Logic in the Logic stage (gr. 5-8); and "Can someone educate me on Logic?" (more geared towards gr. 7-8, but still helpful with specific resource suggestions).

 

 

The way I view Logic as a subject in the logic stage (roughly gr. 5-8), is not so much a formal subject with formal curriculum (that seems to work better in late middle school/high school, when the abstract thinking portions of the brain are maturing), but as using a wide variety of materials, and transitioning your teaching style, to encourage the student to:

- ask "why"

- understand sequence of events

- seeing and describing similarities/differences

- make connections

- look for cause and effect

- predict/guess what WILL happen, based on what has already happened

 

That's why I find doing a wide variety of critical thinking activities, encouraging more than one solution and "out-of-the-box" thinking, introducing strategy games, doing a lot of science hands-on investigations, and following bunny trails at this stage to be very important in helping the student develop several areas of the brain that are used for abstract reasoning and logic later on. I personally view Formal Logic as a helpful subject in the high school years -- as a tool to help the student formulate thoughts and support their views with reasons for "rhetoric" (communication), and for support of the skill of analysis (the ability to look at the parts in order to better understand the whole). I say all of that to help you understand why I suggest various activities below that may not seem very much like a Logic program. :)

 

Enjoy your Logic adventures! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

 

logic workbooks:

- Logic Countdown; then, Logic Liftoff (for similar books: Logic Safari series)

- Connections series (by grade level)

- Mindbenders; Perplexors; free printable or online grid logic puzzles

 

critical thinking workbooks:

- Tin Man press activity books

- Puzzlemania series

- Dr. Funster Think-A-Minutes

- Dr. Funster's Creative Thinking Puzzlers

- 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

- Mission: T.H.I.N.K.

 

games:

- Set

- Duo

- Secret Door

- Blokus

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

- Clue

- Mastermind

- Amazing Labrynth

- 221 B. Baker Street

- Checkers

- Chess

- Boggle

- Scrabble

- Quarto

 

solo logic activities:

- Logix

- Scramble Squares

- Tangrams

- Rush Hour Junior

 

puzzle pages:

- mazes

- crosswords, word jumbles, anagrams

- codes, cryptograms

- sudoku puzzles

 

books (solving "whodunnits"):

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

[twoxcell]

Thanks. My ds loves board games and plays many you have listed regularly.

[twoxcell]

Any other suggestions?

[TarynB]

Thank you, Lori, for such an awesome response . . . I'm taking notes too . . . she included everything I would have suggested and much more!