by The Critical Thinking Co.
$9.99/level

I have known of the The Critical Thinking Co. for a long time, but I was previously only familiar with their logic/critical thinking materials.  I had no idea they had subject-specific books!  My daughter loves puzzles, so, when offered, I jumped at the chance to review one of the Balance Benders books.

As it turns out, these are really a great tool.  Ariel is seven, and just finishing up second grade, so we are using the Beginning level.  But get this – these are algebraic concepts she’s learning.  By making the problems visual and removing the numbers, algebra is automatically made far less overwhelming and much more concrete.  It looks like puzzles, and Ariel has a blast with them.  Meanwhile, she’s learning things like the commutative property and transitive property of equality.

Each page is topped with an image that is the “assumption.”  A balance scale holds a shape or series of shapes on each side, and the scale is either balanced or unbalanced.  (The early ones start out with balanced scales.)  This offers a visual of whether the figure(s) on the left is/are equal to, greater than, or less than the figure(s) on the right.  The remainder of the page is a list of statements, which also make use of the figures shown at the top.  The student has to figure out which of the statements are correct.  The puzzles, which get steadily more difficult as you draw nearer to the end of the book, are reproducible for your household’s use.  Answers are found at the end of the book, complete with explanations and references to the applicable properties (which are all described on a couple of pages at the back of the book).

To give you an example, the first page of the Beginning book is topped with a balanced scale.  One side holds a black square; the other holds a white circle.  The instruction to the student is to “circle the three answers that will always be true.”  The options are things like white circle equals black square; two white circles equal three black squares; one black square and one white circle equal two white circles.  (These are all displayed as images on the page.)

Working through these with Ariel is making algebra seem much less intimidating to me!  She doesn’t know she’s doing algebra; she just knows the puzzles are fun.  But I’m realizing that these concepts really are simple when they aren’t complicated by numbers and “x =.”

I would definitely recommend these books.

If you’re interested in The Critical Thinking Co., they have a couple of other things going on right now.  There is a Critical Thinking Moments Video Contest and a Critical Thinking Heroes Award Program.  They also have a new printables widget, that will allow you to embed free printables on your blog, website, or Facebook page.  For more information, click the links. 🙂

This is a Mama Buzz review. The book for this review was provided by The Critical Thinking Co.