Stepping Stones, A Path to Critical Thinking
by Vera Schneider
Reviewed by Martha Robinson
Purchase details: Stepping Stones, A Path to Critical Thinking, paperback, 88 pages, $9.49. Published by Educators Publishing Service, Inc. Please support HomeschoolChristian.com by buying this book using our Christian Book Distributors link. Teacher's manual, paperback, 16 pages, available for $3.49.
Stepping Stones is part of the critical thinking curricula available from Educators Publishing Service. Designed for the youngest elementary students, Kindergarten to grade two, this series was created because a feeling that critical thinking needed to be a part of the curriculum at early ages.
Every page of the book begins with "What comes next? Continue the pattern." Three to five pictures are shown on the top row, and the child is asked to find the pattern among them. On the bottom row, two or more pictures and a blank on which the child draws a picture to complete the pattern appear. The patterns range from easy sequences such as items that alternate upside down and right side up and big and small to harder sequences of unrelated words that end in a particular phonogram and pictures that contain vertical lines.
The teacher's guide spends the majority of its 16 pages in explaining the rationale behind the program and how it can be beneficial. Two pages are devoted to a chart showing the pattern type and suggested next picture for each page of the student book.
Recommendation: While non-readers could conceivably use this book, they would need to have phonemic awareness to be successful. My husband and I failed miserably at finding the connections among many of the pictures. The program is meant to generate creative thinking, but I think it may frustrate students who are not given a hint about the pattern. The answer key in the teacher's guide is required.
This program brings to mind the question of how early one should start a formal critical thinking curriculum. I encourage you to discuss this and decide when the appropriate time is for each member of your family.
HomeschoolChristian.com resources related to this review:
HomeschoolChristian.com's Classical Education Section
Review of Primary Analogies
Review of Reasoning and Reading
Review of Ridgewood Analogies
Review of The Fallacy Detective
Review of The Thinking Toolbox
Review of Logic in 100 MinutesDVD
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