Critical thinking skills are one of those areas we know we need to have in our school plans, but don’t always know the best ways to include it. We have really enjoyed using resources from The Critical Thinking Co.™ throughout our homeschool years. With the range of workbooks and digital resources they offer, it is easy to find something to fit the needs of all of our children. And make sure to cover these important skills. We recently received Critical Thinking Detective Book 1 – and my daughter (14 yo) had it finished within a week. I think it was a hit.
There are a few resources with the Critical Thinking Detective series for children from 3rd grade to 12th (and older). The Book 1 that we received is not actually the first in this series. The soon-to-be-released Beginner is the book in this series for your younger learners (3rd grade and older). There are also books focused specifically on vocabulary and math as part of this Critical Thinking Detective series. These are so fun for my children; we’ll be picking up more from this series to sneak some learning in over the summer. If you are looking for more formal lessons, there are some titles recommended on the Critical Thinking Detective page (and some reviewed by the Crew this time – check the image at the bottom of the post to read those reviews).
Critical Thinking Detective Book 1 is a supplemental resource. We received the paperback book, though an ebook (for Windows users only) is available. It is a thin book, only 30 pages. My daughter was a bit disappointed, at first. She did not fly through the book in minutes. These are challenging cases. She found she had to really take her time and read and re-read to get all the clues and details. And that is the point.
Each case (there are 12 in the book) has a two-page spread. The left is where the case is presented along with four suspects. The right-hand page is where you write out your thoughts and supporting evidence to eliminate the innocent. I love how the user is directed to use complete sentences. There are also some things to note before beginning – on the How to Solve These Cases page. This is where my daughter had problems. She was very bothered that it was stated that the statements were true. She replied, “but criminals lie! How can what they say be true?”
I encouraged her to just think of it as a rule, if she didn’t agree with it. That she needed to use the witness statements to determine who the thief was. In the how-tos directed to the reader, it states to pay attention to what is fact vs opinion. Most of the time, opinions don’t matter. Once she started reading carefully and analyzing the information given, the truth-telling (or not) was less of an issue.
Despite her annoyance about all the statements being taken as truth, the mystery and riddles kept drawing her in. She quickly worked through each of cases (two or three a day – spending most of her free time on them). She progressed through in order and thought they did get a bit harder as she went. The answers are on the last few pages of the book, so looking up hints was easy for me (the one time she asked for one). The purchaser is granted the right to make copies for their family, so you could copy the cases pages. If you have a couple of children working on these or are concerned about the availability of the answers in the same book, this is a good option.
There are many great resources from The Critical Thinking Co.™. Supplements or full lessons, young learners or older, they have it all covered. We are not fond of workbooks (think busy work) but have found the resources from The Critical Thinking Co. ™ to be very worthwhile. Click the image below to read about all that Crew members received and read the reviews. Don’t miss the discount and freebie below this image!
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