Review: The Critical Thinking Co.

The Critical Thinking Co. produces a wide variety of education products to be used at home. I was given access to Vocabulary Virtuoso PSAT-SAT Book 1 (Grades 8-12+).

I think one of the greatest fears we have as a homeschool mother/father/teacher is that we will miss something key that our child needs to move to the next level of their learning. Products like this one can help you fill in any gaps that may have been overlooked.

I decided to use this program with my 6th and 7th grade niece and nephew. As I have mentioned before, this year we have been doing a Two-Family Homeschool approach. My cousin homeschools the "littles" upstairs while I take the six older children downstairs. (This may seem lopsided, but as those of you with little kids know, it is very, very fair!)

Here are some pictures of Gabe working on his vocabulary book:

Before I even get started on the review, I want to take a moment to share a quick video that includes me doing a quick flip through the book and showing off what it has to offer:

So as you can see from the video above, this is a large book (208 pages). It is designed to:

• Increase vocabulary
• Stimulate imagination
• Boost standards-based language arts skills.

I note that because I used this with two young people a few grades below the age bracket for the program. I encouraged Gabe and Ana with the fact that this was not about just learning words. It was about stretching your brain and working to understand things. 

These book is not easy. And I think that is the reason they include the 8-12+ on the age bracket. Adults would benefit greatly from this book. This is honestly something you could work through together with your child. I am a writer. I was an English major. I taught English. And yet I was often challenged by the level of the words as I worked through the book.

However, with the answer key right at the end of the book, checking your answers and understanding why the answer was what it was, made it easy to maneuver through. There are 20 lessons in the book, and I would have Gabe and Ana work through about one lesson a week. I didn't ask them to go too fast. Each lesson is broken up into sections which include various exercises related to using their 20 vocabulary words in context. If they did one section and seemed overwhelmed, we stopped for the day. If they were doing well, we did a little bit more.

Gabe, who is very chill and doesn't get too ruffled about schoolwork, was very challenged but didn't get too frustrated. However, Ana, who is very focused on getting her answers correct, got a little more ruffled when it was challenging. I explained to Ana that this wasn't just about the first bullet listed above: 

• Increase vocabulary

This was about the second bullet:

• Stimulate imagination

Ana is a good writer and a creative writer. Learning new words and challenging your brain will help her work on those skills. 

Again, Gabe and Ana were both slightly below the recommended 8-12+ age group. However, I definitely think this program worked for them. As I mentioned above, each lesson was broken into sections. Each section contained different types of activities requiring the student to use the words in the lesson appropriately. After every 3 lessons, there was a review lesson. 

Each lesson contains:

• Definitions
• Pronunciation Keys
• Parts of Speech
• Alternate choices for each word made up on synonyms, idioms, and/or phrases

Students:

• Complete a variety of exercises requiring critical reading and writing skills to contextualize the words
• deliberately use other forms of the words as different parts of speech so that they can start to recognize these forms as variations of the original words
• Are pushed to learn the correct spelling of the vocabulary words with jumble or unscramble activities. 

I hope that you can visit The Critical Thinking Co. at one of the following sites. You can also use the code TOSCREW19 and take 15% off any order

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I hope you will take advantage of a promotion code that I can share with you as well. It includes FREE SHIPPING & %15 off any order. Just click on the link below and use the code: TOSCREW19: 

Our Review Team reviewed more than just this one product. I hope you will take the time to click on the link below to view some of the other products that our team had the opportunity to look over.  These products include: 

• Pattern Explorer Beginning (Grades 3-4)
• Elementary Math Games (Grades 3-5) 
• Critical Thinking Detective - Vocabulary Book 2 (Grades 5-12+)
• Dare to Compare: Math Level 2 (Grades 6-7)
• Middle School Math Games (Grades 6-8)
• Building Writing Skills - Essential Tips & Techniques (Grades 6-12+)  
• Vocabulary Virtuoso PSAT-SAT Book 2 (Grades 8-12+)