We had so much fun reviewing Balance Benders by The Critical Thinking Company!
Balance Benders is a workbook with logic problems that are fun and more "addictive than Sudoku puzzles"!
A scale is shown at the top of the page and the student then uses clues to analyse each answer in order to pick the correct answers. These problems are "stepping stones to success in algebra".
Here is an example from page 10:
The problems all have three correct answers. Students choose from a, b, c, d, or e.
I brought this book out and started a competition between my two boys (ages 11 &13) and my husband. My 11 year old didn't take too well to the problems at first. This just isn't how his brain works. After dong the first page, he got the hang of it and did better on the second page. We will definately be working through the rest of this workbook with him.
My 13 year old is beginning algebra and has the learning style that is perfect for Balance Benders. He wizzed through the first eight pages and got them all correct. He decided to try to skip to the last lesson (lesson 40) and try it. He didn't do too bad! I was impressed. He did like it more than Sudoku!
Balance Benders was a blast for one child and not so much for the other. Friendly competition always helps and we will be doing more of this in the future!
This was a great book to help get us started in logic learning. I think that the skills learned will help in taking other tests where thinking through a problem in steps is important.
Price: $9.99 (reproducable pages)
This was not a paid review. All opinions are mine.
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Copyright © 2012 Janet Powers
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1 comment:
Thanks again for the wonderful review. That book would be good for all of us...not just kids...
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