Logic

I have to start Logic at the beginning (last year).  Don't worry it won't take too long.

I'm a fan of The Well Trained Mind and while I don't follow everything it advises, I use it as my base to start picking and choosing subjects and curriculum.

That being said, WTM let me down pretty good last year. 

Yes, I know that not every curriculum works well for every family (it even mentions that in the book), but I'd never not liked a curriculum before, let alone experienced the massive crash and burn that happened with the logic curriculum that Makenna and I tried.

It was brutal.

We got Critical Thinking, Book 1, by the Critical Thinking Co.  Now, it might be true that someone who has a background and good understanding of logic may have liked this curriculum.  I don't and didn't.

And while I agree that it's good to try things that are difficult so we can stretch our minds and learn, there comes a point where it's no longer just a stretch and there's pain involved.  Lots and lots of pain.

We tried for a few months and then gave up.  We both hated it with a pretty fiery passion.

I might have given up on logic forever, if not for the fun workbooks we started at the very same time (and happen to be made by the very same people) called Mindbenders.  Makenna loved hers so much last year that I bought some for the boys this year.

They're a stretch (as you get to the higher levels), but still fun.  The boys are loving theirs this year just as much as Makenna.  I love that as they finish each page they feel a great sense of accomplishment for solving the puzzle.  James (1st grade) started in Book 2, Ben (3rd grade) is in Book 4 and Makenna is finishing up Book 6 and we'll be moving onto Book 7 during the year.

I highly recommend Mindbenders.  There aren't a lot in a workbook, so my kids do one a week (which means they look forward to them and they're almost like a treat, how cool is that?) and will progress through one workbook a year.

Only because I think logic is very important.  Very, very important.  Did I decide to give a more formal course another go this year.

We bought The Art of Argument (which I also got out of WTM) by Classical Academic Press and started it a few weeks ago.  First, this is a completely different kind of logic than we studied last year (informal as opposed to formal logic), which might have something to do with the fact that we haven't wanted to chuck it out a window yet, but I also think it's laid out much better than last years major catastrophe. 

Makenna and I are both enjoying it AND learning.  At the very same time.  Crazy, I know.

My favorite part is getting to see her make real world connections.  She'll see or hear an ad and tell me that it's using this or that fallacy.  I love having the ability to teach her to see through all the fakery out there (yes, I just made up a word).

If we keep liking it as much as we've started, I'll probably move on to another of their curriculum next year (The Argument Builder or The Discovery of Deduction).

Do you have a favorite curriculum or method to study logic?  I'd love to hear about it!

Leah