My son and I love logic problem puzzles and we had the opportunity to do a product review on the Critical Thinking Detective Book 1 that is made by The Critical Thinking Co.™ recently. Check out our thoughts on this book that has many logic problems to solve.

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[ctt template=”4″ link=”a1uje” via=”yes” ]My son and I love logic problem puzzles and we had the opportunity to do a product review on the Critical Thinking Detective Book 1 that is made by The Critical Thinking Co.™ recently. Check out our thoughts on this book that has many logic problems to solve.[/ctt]

Review of The Critical Thinking Co.™ Critical Thinking Detective Book 1

About The Critical Thinking Co.™

This is a family company that was founded by John Baker more than 50 years ago in the basement of his home. Now it is run by his son, Michael Baker and they have grown to over 200 products. Michael has three sons who have helped by working activities to improve on some of their products in the development process. They are dedicated to helping children, families and communities by designing critical thinking into reading, writing, math, science, and history lessons so students carefully analyze what they are learning and produces deeper understanding, which results in better grades and higher test scores. In memory of the founder, The Critical Thinking Co.™ donates two or more products to children in need for every order they receive. I think that is really sweet.

About Critical Thinking Detective™ Book 1

The book was well packaged and arrived quickly.  It measures in at 8.5 x 11 inches and has 32 pages.  It offers a “How to Solve These Mysteries” section in the front of the book to help you.  There are twelve mysteries to solve. This book is recommended for Grades 4 – 12+. My son just finished Grade 6 so he falls right in that category.  You have to have keen observation skills (although this book will help you to develop them), read carefully and analyze the information given to solve each problem. The ability to identify and evaluate evidence is at the very heart of critical thinking.

How We Used It

For each mystery, you have to assume that the story and suspects' statements are true. It gives a background of what happened and some story details that may be worth paying attention to. It tells what is missing and some details about the crime. It also has nice illustrations of the suspects along the bottom and their statements. You have to carefully read it so you don't miss a single detail.

Maris likes to work things out in his head (even when doing difficult math problems) and is very good at that.  I would have to write everything down and scribble all over the place. This is basically the order of how he would solve them:

1. He would read through the activity and re-read it several times and would kind of look off into space.
2. Then he sometimes would count on his fingers.
3. He would eventually write down who was eliminated and definitely not the suspect he is looking for.
4. He would narrow it down to the last guilty subject, then write their name in the “Thief” section on the work page. That is how he solved it.

Occasionally, he would ask his older sister or me for advice to see if we could see anything he was missing. At times like this, if his sister or I didn't feel we could help, I would go to the answer key in the back and read a part of the answer so as not to give it all away, but to give him a clue so he can keep on trying to solve it. Sometimes the suspects are not humans! In “The Chicken Breast Thief”, it was a cat and in “The Dog Food Thief” mystery, it was a dog who was guilty!

This was a nice, colorful way to stretch his brain and get him problem-solving and looking for details.

Maris' Opinion

“I thought it was good. Sometimes it was a little hard, but it was fun and challenging.”

My Opinion

This is a really nice book. I love the colorful illustrations and deep thinking that goes along with trying to deduce who is left over after eliminating some suspects. This would be a great birthday gift for a teen or a great book to take along on a long car ride.

How To Find Them:

• Website: https://www.criticalthinking.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCriticalThinkingCo
• Google+: https://plus.google.com/+TheCriticalThinkingCo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/criticalthinks
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/criticalthinks/

Special Pricing

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Special Offer from CriticalThinking.com!
Free Shipping + 15% Off Any Size Order! Use Coupon Code: TOSCREW18. Expires 12/31/2018.

The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Review Crew has a great team of people that have also used and reviewed this book from The Critical Thinking Co.™ so click the banner below to see all the reviews:

Thanks for stopping by! I look forward to sharing more great curriculum reviews throughout the coming year.

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