Four Violet Reviews: The Critical Thinking Co. ~ REVIEW

I just did a whole thing on Instagram about using games in our homeschool. We love to do this and for Kaden sometimes it's a necessity because of a hard morning or long afternoon. Recently we were blessed with the Elementary Math Games (Grades 3-5) from The Critical Thinking Co. and have been gaming away every since we cracked it open.

This award-winning, family owned company has been around since 1958 and offers us over 200 different titles in math, reading, writing, science, and social studies. We have used several of their products throughout our homeschool time. And just like this time our expectations were always met and exceeded.

This book is perfect for elementary ages as it reinforces concepts and skills like:

number sense
operational skills practice
place value
fractions
decimals
math vocabulary and symbols

There are 20 games to play, each has very detailed instructions, game variations and example play for when your child wants to play before your second cup of coffee. :) There is also helpful math terms, answers, learning standards, materials needed and teaching tips.

The very 1st game we tried was game 1, Greater than, less than. Were we used dice and activity sheet where we tried to keep the sum of the numbers on the left side greater than the sum of the numbers on the right side of the equation. Kaden's favorite, he could have done this all day long.

He had fun working on game 14 that was about prime numbers, composites, perfect squares, factors and multiples. I have to be honest, he taught me a few things that day. We also enjoyed game 5, called math in a circle. Our whole family played and it's been the most played out of the book so far.

Cards are included, so Kaden helped cut them all out. Basically you start with a number, let's say 2 and then the person with the 1st card does it's instruction, which is to double the number. Ok, then you take that answer, which is 4 and the person with card 2 reads their card and completes the problem. The action says to triple the number now, so the answer is now 12. The next person reads their card, which says to now divide the number by 6.... and on and on it goes. We have played this in the van, while he's in the shower and even at the breakfast table. His favorite game hands down!

There are so many great games that make learning math so much fun, it honestly doesn't feel like learning at all. We slip in math games usually once a week or so, but since we have had this book Kaden has done something from it almost every single day. You can head Here to see a table of contents to get a good idea about all the games provided.

So, what did I think? I think this is a perfect supplement during math time. Once or twice a week it's super fun to be able to do something different, to have fun and laugh while concreting these concepts and skills we are always so pressured to make sure our children know. Forget drills and pop quizzes a few times a week and have fun with learning. Kaden has gotten a ton of use out of this book and said this would be perfect during summer school.
Make sure you Connect with The Critical Thinking Co. on social media and click below to see what other Reviewers had to say about these other titles from them.