Review of The Critical Thinking Co.™

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you already know what I think of The Critical Thinking Co.™. Mary-Catherine (13) is using their history this semester, and I have used countless other of their books over the past ten years of homeschooling. I can honestly say that we have never used something of theirs that we didn't all love. This time around, we got to review Critical Thinking Detective: Vocabulary.  

With Nicholas (15) entering his sophomore year of high school in the fall, I have begun to think about standardized tests as they relate to him. Whereas Therese (16) has always been my rock solid verbal girl, Nicholas is all about the math. In fact, I am sometimes very surprised by the vocabulary words he doesn't know. Out of my four kids, he is my least avid reader, and that is made evident by the vocabulary that he has not just naturally acquired over the years. If I'm being completely honest, I had always been a little, well, skeptical about vocabulary curriculum. Blessed with readers and possessed of more than a touch of sesquipedalianism myself, I have been of the opinion that vocabulary is something one just absorbs from books and life. One does not seek it out especially for the purpose of studying it. And then there was Nicholas (isn't there always that one kid that breaks you of all your smug pre-conceived notions?). He's so good in math that I stopped being able to help him years ago, but there are holes in his vocabulary - holes I don't want to negatively impact his PSAT score. 

Enter one of my new favorite products:

This vocabulary book is just plain fun. For grades 5-12+, it introduces new vocabulary words through cases. Think of them as two-minute mysteries (remember those?). In a couple of paragraphs, a crime scenario is presented along with a list of suspects and descriptions. On the facing page, there are 15 sentences with a vocabulary box. Students read the case and suspect descriptions, solve the crime, and then fill in the blanks with the correct vocabulary word. None of it feels like work. It just feels like fun. The vocabulary words are excellent: abrogate, onus, cogent, foist - so many of my favorites. The answer keys in the back list all of the correct answers along with a synonym for the vocabulary word presented, so students really get two for the price of one when learning words.

As for how Nicholas has liked working through this book, I got no complaints at all. In general, he likes workbooks. He can get in, get out, and be done. He has also learned so many new words. I got one text from him (hooray for products that let kids work independently!) asking what a particular word meant, but that's all. Otherwise, the book did its job in teaching him the new words through context. As with all products from The Critical Thinking Co.™, I have been so impressed with this one. It's easy and fun, but it packs a powerful punch when it comes to teaching. The Critical Thinking Co.™ was very generous with the Crew and gave us many different products, so be sure to click the banner below to see everything else we got to review.