Logic for early grades. What has worked for you?

[Jennefer@SSA]

Can someone who is familiar with these programs review them for me? Are there other really great programs I am missing?

Dandy Lion Logic (http://rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?sid=1191346398-356414&id=013920)

Building Thinking Skills (http://www.criticalthinking.com/getProductDetails.do?id=05241&code=c)

I already have Mind Benders Beginnings (http://rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?sid=1204339142-18413&id=011293) and ds6 is loving these.

Is there a logical sequence to working through these? Would it be redundant to do more than one of these programs or are they different enough that there would be benefit to doing several. Ds is loving Mind Benders so much so I am trying to form a plan for next year.

TIA

[one l michele]

Critical Thinking's Mind Benders, Dr. Funster's Think a Minutes, Suduko, Visual Perceptual Skill Building, Developing the Early Learner, Highlights Puzzlemania, Lollipop Logic, & Primarily Logic.

My boy's favorites are the Dandy Lion Logic sereis and I like that these contain a variety of thinking skills, we will continue through this sereies moving on to Logic Countdown next year.

My oldest liked the Mind Benders, but I'm going to switch to Grid Perplexors (same concept, but more puzzles for your buck). I think these start at a 3rd or 4th grade level though, so you may need to start with the Beginner Mind Benders, then move over.

We did not care for Dr. Funster's Think a Minutes.

Visual Perceptual Skill Buidling and Developing the Early Learner are great for Pre-K/K.

They do the Highlights Puzzlemania books and Suduko for fun.

I do think a variety is good, especially if they enjoy this type of stuff.

We also play a lot of thinking games.

[elegantlion]

The book we are currently using is DandyLion's Logic Countdown. The book has 54 one page lessons and we a lesson orally 3x per week. the subject matter ranges from analogies to syllogisms to inferencing. IMO the book progresses nicely and allows the child to think, without it being frustrating.

I have not used any of the other products, but we do plan on using the 3 books in this series.

[WendyK]

We are currently using Building Thinking Skills Level 1 and Mind Benders Warm Up.

I like the Building Thinking Skills because there is no preparation for me and my son thinks the worksheets are fun. I just tear out a sheet 4 times a week or so and he does it in a few minutes. I think at this point that is more than enough for him. We both have a good time with the Mind Benders. We do about one page per week orally. My only complaint is that there aren't many puzzles. I know there are more books (and luckily one of my local libraries carries a few of the titles). I think for the price and what you get it doesn't make it so attractive though.

I was looking at the Dandy Lion logic books as well. I have bought some of their other books and have liked them for the most part.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

We've used Building Thinking Skills Primary and Level 1. I like the variety of activities, and my kids enjoy them. Another idea for next year, since your DS loves Mind Benders would be to get a kid's sudoku book. It's been a big hit with my older DD who loves the MindBenders as well.

[cin]

We have several of the smaller books (mind benders, dandylion logic, and a beginners analogies) and do a page a week. In the Thinking Skills book we do 2-3 pgs a day. DD LOVES doing all these things. It's her favorite part of school!

[Laura K (NC)]

This is for a co-op we're involved with this year. I draw from a few different sources. The Dandylion Press books are really good, and all my kids have done those. In the class they really like games like Mastermind (which involves logic). I adapted the game so that it is on paper and they can color in the circles with different markers instead of using pegs. (But then I found out that one of the boys in my class is color-blind, so I went to 6 different kind of candies instead of colors, and the kids really liked that! :)) The kids all really like Sudoku, and they thought that the easier kids' versions (4x4 or 6x6) were awesome. I also do origami with them. We hosted a Japanese student for a month this summer, and through him I found out that even preschool children in Japan do origami. It teaches them how to be precise, it teaches them geometry, and it teaches them to have patience with the several steps required to get to the final project.

My class for older students uses the book Fallacy Detective. It's a great book for conversation. I give prizes when the kids bring in examples of fallacies (there was one in Dilbert a few days ago of a "loaded question" fallacy, and I copied it to give to them). I've taught this class before and the kids really hang on to these fallacies if we cover one thoroughly each week.

[Jennefer@SSA]

Thanks to everyone who posted here. This was so very helpful to me!

I love these boards!