Quite a while back, I signed up for Timberdoodle’s Blogger Review Team. Didn’t hear anything, and I mostly forgot about it.
Then, in early December, I received an email asking if I’d be interested in reviewing some Critical Thinking Press books. Would I ever! I drool over their stuff pretty much like I do the Timberdoodle catalog.
If you want some ideas for great homeschool curriculum without having to wade through mediocre stuff, request one of Timberdoodle‘s free homeschool catalogs. Then you can drool along with me. 
There was a list of titles to choose from, and I rearranged the titles into my preferred order, in case they’d run out of my top choices. Lucky me, I was notified that I’d be receiving the first three picks. Since they were all from the Building Thinking Skills series, and lined up just perfectly with the ages of my kids, all four could be involved and no one would feel left out.
The Princess, my 3rd grade daughter, would try out Building Thinking Skills Book 1.
Doodle, my 5th grade son, would delve into Building Thinking Skills Book 2.
And my older two sons, Tiger, in 7th, and my Chef, in 9th, would explore Building Thinking Skills Book 3 Figural.
Today, I’m going to talk about Building Thinking Skills Book 1:
My first impression of Book 1 in the Building Thinking Skills series is that it is HUGE.
When I delve inside, I find that there are over 300 worksheets in this black & white, reproducable book. That’s nearly enough to do one page per day for two entire years of school. Wow.
There are ten chapters. The order that the worksheets should be used in is somewhat flexible, and a flow-chart showing recommended paths is included at the front of the book. The book is roughly 50% figural (think math-like) and 50% verbal (language-related), though I’d definitely recommend that if you’re planning on having the student self-pace and work alone, that they be reading reasonably fluently for their grade level before starting this book. Otherwise, expect to spend some time reading and explaining directions.
The most time-consuming part of preparation is definitely going to be your photocopying time. This is a LOT of pages. If you intend to have multiple children working through the book over the next few years, consider doing twice the copies now and saving yourself the time later.
Many of the pages seem like games and puzzles, and if approached in this manner, for most kids this will seem like a “fun break” from their regular schoolwork. None of the pages take very long to complete – definitely not your typical drill-like pages. That might well be why it has such a *fun* feel, even though it is worksheets.
Building Thinking Skills Book 1 would only take up minutes of your school day, but it’s an easy way to encourage mental problem-solving and recognition of patterns. Since most core curriculums don’t include a logical thinking component, there’s nothing to replace, and it would be simple and quick to add this in.
The answer key is complete and seems accurate – my only wish is that the print were just a slight bit larger. But then again, I understand why they chose the size they did – increasing the size could have easily added another 40-50 pages to the book!
Building Thinking Skills Book 1, from Critical Thinking Press, is available at Timberdoodle. Or, request a free homeschool catalog!
Other books in the Building Thinking Skills series:
- Building Thinking Skills Beginning – preschool, ages 2-4
- Building Thinking Skills Book 2 – grades 4th-6th, ages 9-11
- Building Thinking Skills Book 3 Figural – grades 7th+, ages 12+
- Building Thinking Skills Book 3 Verbal - grades 7th+, ages 12+
**Legal Disclosure: As a member of Timberdoodle’s Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of these books in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.**
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