Critical Thinking Review-Timberdoodle

A few months ago, I discovered through another blogger (so sorry I can't remember who!) about the Timberdoodle's Blogger Review team and quickly signed up to join! I was definitely hopeful but never expected to hear anything back so quickly! When we were asked to review two books from Critical Thinking Press I was ecstatic! I was able to do a review on a book for each girl and they arrived within just a few days! How exciting!

First off, I must say that when I got these books, I didn't think they looked very exciting. They are big THICK workbooks and I thought for sure that would turn the girls off from wanting to work in them. Boy was I wrong! My youngest took to it at an insane speed, completing 29 pages in one sitting! I didn't think my three year old had that kind of attention span! Guess I had something to learn too. :)

Building Thinking Skills Beginning

Ages 3-4  

This book begins with very simple ideas... matching colors, saying color names out loud and doing basic mazes that include colors. They begin with basic ideas and build on them piece by piece throughout the book. To look at these pages through an adults eyes, they look simple and probably on the boring side. However, hand it to a three year old and they are easy enough to do but fun and self esteem building for the pages to gradually get more involved! The book has the same rhythm to it throughout: recognizing colors, classifying/sorting them, mazes, differences and describing/listening. I guess I didn't give my kiddo enough credit, because the describing sections I thought would be the hardest, she flew through like they were nothing. It was good for me to see her in action and to learn about what challenges her.

I liked that while it is technically a workbook, it was engaging enough to hold her attention and kept things lively by mixing it up a bit. It wasn't page after page of tracing letters (which I am not a fan of) or simple coloring pages (which seem to be a lot of what I find in books for her age.). We aren't quite done with it yet, but I am happy to say that it has been a joy to do with her and she is constantly asking when she can do school work too!

Is it worth it? I would say it is worth buying. Due to the simple nature of the book, I don't think you would have to write in it (we haven't) so it could be used and shared with friends or used for two children. Definitely worth the investment!

On more than one occasion, I have found her sitting here "teaching" her baby... I just LOVE it! :)



Building Thinking Skills Book 1

Grade 2-3

I am guessing that I over shot on this one. My daughter is technically in first grade but is a bit beyond her level on most things so I thought that this book wouldn't be any problem or at least challenging in a good way. Well, I don't know if it is just her, just me or if it really is that hard and boring....

This workbook has the same rhythm as the other book in the way it  rotates descriptions, matching and following directions but the content of the pages and the amount of geometry focused activities has had her really struggling. I must hand it to her tho, she's a real trooper and keeps trying bit by bit..

In the end, I think this will be a book that we hold onto for another day... and in the mean time, it reminded me just how much I hate geometry and that I am going to have to brush up on it alot before we hit the high school years! lol

Would I buy this? Hmmm... while I like challenges, I don't think that I would get this one. I know she needs to learn this stuff but I think it could be done in a different manner.

Over all, I really enjoyed getting to try something new and would like to send a BIG THANKYOU to Timberdoodle for giving me the opportunity!

For those of you not familiar with Timberdoodle, I must say that I personally feel really good about ordering from this company. While I know this is technically a review about the workbooks, I thought I would share a little bit about what I have learned about the company. Until recently, I had never heard of this company and I'm so glad I did. They are homeschoolers too, and they really seem to want the very best for their company and our childrens' education. A big plus for me, is that they are located in Washington state so once again, I have the opportunity to buy local! :) If you haven't already checked out their site, you really should. They have everything from Complete Curriculum Kits to Thinking skills games or educational games and everything in between! You can even request a Free Homeschool Catalog! In my experience with them so far, they have been incredibly helpful, friendly and fast! I will definitely be doing business with them again soon!! (No really, I do mean soon... my shopping cart is filling up fast!)

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.