Logic Countdown, Grades 3-4

The number of typos makes me think there was no editing process for this book. I feel like I have to proofread each page before using.

Well designed logic book. It helps a lot with sequencing events and word association and also relationships between objects. The idea of "A leads to B so it must then end up at C". This is something that we don't realize is lacking in a lot of schools, but it is. My son bridged a lot of thinking skills from this book into higher thoughts. He didn't always do great on in the workbook, but he usually did well. Some pages he would ace and others he would struggle but he always made improvements the next time he came to that kind of thinking. That's the goal right? Although it's all in black and white (bummer) and this is usually something I would take a star away for, it's just really worth having.

I got a copy of this book for each of my two nieces. We try to do one or two pages a week.For teaching basic logic skills, I like the way this book is designed. However, I find that many times, especially in the analogies section, the exercises assume the children have knowledge that it isn't reasonable that all third and fourth graders will have.For example, one of the problems is "Clydesdale is to horse as centipede is to arthropod". Well, my nieces aren't particularly interested in horses, so that's right out, and while they DO know that all centipedes are arthropods, due to spending many many hours in the bugs section of our local children's museum, I'm not sure all kids their age have that knowledge right at their fingertips. Another problem has the answer that person is to multitude as quail is to covey. I can tell you now that other than "murder of crows" the only term I use for a group of birds is "flock". I don't think I've ever even seen a quail in my life, nor have the girls outside of ABC books when they were little.And these more unusual examples are interspersed with things like "stalk is to leopard like slither is to snake" or "teacher is to school as doctor is to hospital", so it's not like the author couldn't think of things that are more likely to be common knowledge.Of course, now that I've said that I'm sure many of you will pipe up that information about varieties of horses, terms for groups of animals, car brands and the like are all common knowledge that you expect kids that age to know : ) However, not all children do know these things, and the fact that we often come up against a problem they cannot answer using the knowledge they have means I can't just give them a page and check it after while I do the dishes or something. Instead, I have to sit with them to translate unfamiliar terms and to watch out for a low frustration tolerance approaching.The problem seems to get better once we move out of analogies. Inferencing also sees to require a set vocabulary and some prior knowledge, but that vocabulary and knowledge doesn't seem as obscure to me. Then again, YMMV on that.One other note, one of the inferences gave the example of "peppermint is to spearmint as Cherokee is to Shoshone". One of the wrong answers was "brave". I no more want to teach my nieces that it is appropriate to call Native American men "braves" than I want to teach them that African Americans like themselves are... well, I won't finish that unpleasant little analogy because I am sure you can fill in the blanks. The appropriate term for a man of another ethnic group is just "man". Let's try to move ahead here.

Our homeschooler went through these, two per week (which wasn't much to ask). As with any number of "workbook"-type books, there's always a question whether the child is going to bring anything at all out of the experience. As far as I can tell, this book (like the whole Prufrock series) provides only minimal scaffolding for traditional logic and a little practice in careful thinking, but certainly a trivial amount of the latter than the student will get from any reasonably thoughtful math series like Singapore or Saxon.For me, the main reason I'm having my homeschooler work through this series is to make his introduction to actual logic, the subject you'd find taught in http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Logic-Irving-M-Copi/dp/0130337358/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399131049&sr=1-2&keywords=introduction+to+logic+copi which the philosophy department at Ohio State uses (or used, anyway). As I say, I think this will provide a very small amount of scaffolding for this purpose, but not a lot.A secondary reason to study this book and the whole series is that it actually does get the student thinking about the sort of analysis-type questions that they'll later have to answer on the SAT and GRE. So you can think of it as a sort of early elementary test prep.What it ain't, is logic. But that's OK.

I am impressed. I failed to truly relate the content based on the Contents page.As I have mentioned amongst forum contacts and friends, most puzzle-type books do not impress me, and I often fail to understand the concept. However, this seems to be very appropriate in demonstrating analogies, relationships, syllogisms, sequencing, if-then statements, deduction, and inference in a manner that is not remedial but applicable to a child.The lessons use those groups, statements, and examples of those concepts and ideas that are familiar to the child. That is to say that they use letters of the alphabet, directional placement, everyday toys, foods, beverages, et cetera.So, I would start with Logic Countdown. I cannot see skipping this book. IMO, I find that you could start as late as the fifth (perhaps even the sixth) for a child that has not had any logic study. I also think that a third grader would have no problem understanding and reading the text.I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of coverage and subject content. I like a simple approach to this topic at this age, and this fits us - without nonsensical puzzling that is.

I bought the workbook for my nine-year-old after the pandemic began and I recognized the general educational decline inherent in distance learning. She and I worked through the entire book together, and I have used it as a tool to help her start to evaluate her world in a more logical way. She thoroughly enjoyed it and looked forward to our time together working on some of the logic games within. We already bought the second book and are working our way through that.

I really like this book. It covers topics that go over some math and literacy areas:- relationships- analogies- sequencing- all and no statements- syllogisms- if-then statements- deduction- inferencingThe book is rather short. It is not a text book. There is no teachers manual. It's really more a collection of exercises (54 in total). Some are accompanied by introductions to the topic, but mostly just have instructions on what to do in the exercise.Book has a page that shows alignment to CCS.

This book contains explanations and exercises for analogies, "all" statements, "no" statements, syllogisms, "if-then" statements, use the clues provided to find the answer.It is a good starter for a 3rd grader who enjoys brain benders.Cons: very expensive for info provided in only 53 pages.