Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
This month we are excited to have had the opportunity to use one of review The Critical Thinking Co.™‘s fantastic resources for problem solving. Both my boys enjoy brain teasers so we have had fun together, working through problems in the book we received, Mastering Logic & Math Problem Solving.
Mastering Logic & Math Problem Solving
We received a physical copy of the book Mastering Logic & Math Problem Solving for Grades 6-9. The book, however, is also available in e-book form if that is preferred. The book contains 10 Chapters and 180 pages of logical thinking problems, brain teasers, and math problems to work you and your kids brains! The problems in these books are your typical one to two step math word problems. The problems that the The Critical Thinking Co.™ provides in this book are designed to work you kids brains. They must think outside the box, and use many different strategies to solve these brain teasers and logic problems.
The book begins with a very good introduction for parents and teachers. It explains clearly how best to use this book with your child or students. Also, it clearly gives instructions of how to solve these problems with a whole class, small group, or with individual students.
Mastering Logic and Math Problem Solving also gives clear steps for your students to use to solve problems. My kids and I went over these steps together before we dove into solving problems which helped us focus! I loved that the first instruction was “Read, Read, Read”! I tell my kids to do this all the time in our math work. It was exciting for me for my kids to see the same instruction in this book! So often they try to read it once and immediately start answering, or say they don’t know. It is important to take this step and read a problem several times for specific information when solving math problems.
The Math Problems
The Critical Thinking Co.™‘s book, Mastering Logic & Math Problem Solving, is broken up into 10 Chapters. The chapters define the categories of problems you will find in this book. They are listed as follows:
- Multicultural Logic Problems
- Fun with Classical Brain Teasers
- Number Theory Problems
- Problem Solving with Sets
- Ratio, Proportion, and Percent Problems
- Algebra Word Problems
- Geometry Word Problems
- More Algebra Word Problems
- Probability Word Problems
- Topology Fun Word Problems
In addition to the 10 chapters of the the book, there is also an answer key (A must have!) in the back and several bonus activities that we look forward to enjoying!
How we used Mastering Logic & Math Problem Solving
First of all, do not feel like you need to start at the beginning and just work through this whole book. That’s not necessarily the best way to use this book. You could do that with older kids who have all the skills necessary for all the problem categories, however, I found it better to pick and choose what problems I wanted my kids to attempt. I explored the book and found problems in different categories that I thought were an appropriate difficultly level for my sons. We have enjoyed many of the multicultural logic problems, and the brain teasers. My older son enjoyed the Topology and Geometry related word problems the most. He enjoyed the design and spatial reasoning aspect of these.
I love that the problems vary greatly in difficulty level. I have one son just starting 6th grade and another 4th. Therefore I was planning on just using this book for my older son. However, a large portion of this book’s problems do not necessarily rely on math skills to solve, but logically thinking skills. Therefore I found it was appropriate to challenge my younger son as well who excels in math. This made it perfect for us to use to have fun trying to solve some of these brain teasers together. My 8 year old beginning 4th grader, was thrilled to be able to find the correct solution to several of these problems by himself.
We have begun summer break right now in our homeschool, and therefore not doing our regular math curriculum right now. However, I have found that choosing one or two of these problems regularly, for my kids to work on together is great learning activity to keep our brains active through the summer.
A Resource we will use again and again!
I know after using Mastering Logic and Math Problem Solving that this will be a resource I can continue to pull from. It will help me add challenging problem solving practice to my kids’ homeschool curriculum. We have not tried many of the algebra, and number problems yet, as they are a bit harder and require some math skills that my kids aren’t ready for yet. However, I know that we will be pulling problems for practice from this book for a long time. These will be perfect as they get older and advance in their mathematics and problem solving skills. I also look forward to trying more resources from The Critical Thinking Co.™ in the future with my kids!
If you are looking for a resource to help your kids improve and practice their logical thinking and math problem solving skills, I highly recommend you check out Mastering Logic & Math Problem Solving and many others from the The Critical Thinking Co.™. They do an excellent job of providing you and your kids with fun exercises that will challenge and develop good problem solving skills!
Other Reviewers from the Homeschool Review Crew have had a chance to use and review this book and many others from the Critical Thinking Co. To read more about these amazing resources click below!
