Critical Thinking

Future Worlds

August 6, 2022 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Future Worlds) through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated.

What do you see the world looking like in the future? What changes do you foresee happening in how we live? How will the world change in 100 years? Do you think things might look different than what Lonely Planet’s Future Worlds suggests? A good discussion book for thinking about the future with your kiddos.

Quick Run Down of Future Worlds

Future Worlds: A Guide to the Planet of Tomorrow was put together by Anna Claybourne and Robert Ball along with publisher Lonely Planet Kids. 24 pages which flip out, hardcover and geared to 9-12 year olds. This book will make you think about what the world might look like further along in the future. Consider, what new things might be invented? Perhaps things might work differently, might be fun to imagine eh?

I am reviewing a hardcover edition on behalf of Raincoast Books.

Getting a broader view

One of the many aspects I like about Future Worlds is the foldout pages. This turns this 24-page hardcover book into a more imaginative, idea-filled, question-filled resource. As you open up those foldout pages don’t forget to lift the flaps too! So much more to discover on each of these pages!

Most of the pages are on the horizontal, but occasionally a page set on the vertical could be found, helping us to imagine the height of some of out future buildings. Lonely Planet tells us this tome is based on the latest in scientific thinking, but I have to wonder about that abit….

…. because they have us thinking that theatres will be all VR, our food will either be all plant- or insect-based, and that robots will give us superhuman strength. Not only that, our snacks will be 3-D printed, and we’ll only get around using electric, driverless cars and by hoverboard.

My question is this: would you really want this to be your world? Or would you welcome such innovations and changes to the way we live our lives?

Regardless of your answers to those questions, you’ll find ideas packed throughout, while giving lots of space for illustrations to future fuel the imagination.

My older eyes did find the text a little small, but still quite readable. Can you imagine an umbrella just hovering over your head? That idea just spawns all kinds of imagined changes.

I find it interesting though, I watched the “Back to the Future” movies, and hoverboards, flying vehicles, etc were part of the imagined future as well. So thinking that we’ll have flying buses and cars fills me with some skepticism. Those items are so often a part of an imagined future don’t you find?

So is it one you should grab?

Books like Future Worlds are fun! Seriously. To see all the things that people imagine might happen in the future? It spawns the imagination, and ignites ideas for potential research. Can I see insects becoming more important in the future? For sure! I think more research and publicity needs to occur for the eating of crickets and superworms to become more acceptable. 🙂

The idea of having a hovering umbrella makes me curious and has me asking questions such as: but what will stabilize it when there’s wind blowing at odd angles? What keeps it at the right angle? Can you set an optimal height? How will those kinks be worked out?

Isn’t it fascinating to consider? I think so, and spurring on the ideas and imaginations of middle schoolers? How much the better??!?!?!? Just think about how you can use this in your creative writing program, or as a critical thinking exercise. So many uses for a book like this to get your kids thinking!

High School Poetry Lessons

April 19, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

As I pondered this week’s challenge from the Crew, poetry in the homeschool, I wondered how to find an English credit for a lad when I want to fill his world with the light and wonder I find in poetry. But instead, I have a lad who battles long, poetry is just not his jam. How then, do other parents provide their teens with high school poetry lessons?

It’s also, according to audible… national poetry month! What better month to talk about poetry in!?!?!

The battle rages
Swift and hot
I will not it
Just not not not.

But the words my lad!
I pleaded long
Can’t you see it?
The story and the song?

I will not do it
Repeated again.
Determined Teen
No Shakespearean!

In today’s post let’s discover some options for teaching poetry with those teens who would really rather not. 🙂 With teens, finding a way to make it interesting, almost always helps. A teacher’s enthusiasm can ignite fires in their pupils.

How to Teach Poetry to Highschool Students

Make poetry a part of life. Add it into the events of the day, or the month, or your life. You could have a daily poetry time, a circle time with the rest of the family, or just read poetry as it suits an occasion. Be creative. Choose good poetry if you can, but read silly poetry if you must. Just show how versatile it can be. Epic poetry, Sonnets, free verse, blank verse, rhyming, narrative, haiku, limericks and odes. Vary the style, mood and tempo just fit it to the events of the day or your life.

Add it to your studies. If you are studying WW2, read poetry that individuals created during the war, after the war, about the war. Let the imaginary fill their minds and just leave it there. World War 2 poetry books like Under the broken Sky, and It rained Warm Bread will capture the hearts and minds of your teens, bringing a poignancy of war they won’t get from non-fiction. If you are studying geological forms, learning chemistry, or even studying calculus. You’ll find a poem that suits almost any subject you can think of.

Some instructors say you should always introduce poetry that is age-appropriate or perhaps a bit higher. I can see the value in that, at the same time, reading poetry that is light and fun is sometimes just the ticket. Urge them higher, but don’t be afraid to introduce the unexpected should the occasion demand it. Mix it up, both topic, style and age appeal.

Introduce a variety of poets. Use the poets of different time periods when studying history, or use historical poems to talk through the seasons. Don’t limit yourself to celebrated poets of the past or just modern day delights. Good poems will speak to us regardless of when they were written.

Poetry is one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another

Use poetry of different lengths to teach drama and presentation skills as you prepare your high school poetry lessons. Help your students to hone the skills they need in presenting information without having to make a speech first. Poetry can teach cadence, tone, and style.

The value of memorization. I know, I know, not often something we have our highschool students engage in. But they have to memorize equations, scientific facts and the like, why shouldn’t they memorize some good poetry as well? Being able to retain facts is a necessary part of working after all isn’t it? Forbes will tell you that memorizing facts helps you to think more critically.

Just as you can use novels to teach some harder literary devices, you can also use poetry to do the same thing. Concepts such as irony, paradox, different types of symbolism and more. After all, the great American poet Robert Frost said, “Poetry is one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another.”, so why shouldn’t we use it to teach our students? Pen and Pad has some suggestions.

How about you eh? What will you use to help your students learn poetry this year or even next? Have you found some creative ways to add poetry to your high school years? What sources will you be using for teaching your high school poetry lessons?

Review: The Critical Thinking Co.

May 8, 2019 By Annette1 3 Comments

Knowing how to think through issues is something that my son is VERY interested in lately. To that end we’ve been learning debate and some of the fallacies that go into having a debate. When we were offered the chance to go through another critical thinking product, my son was delighted! A chance to problem solve? What fun!

So over the past few weeks my son has been learning new vocabulary as he solves mysteries from the The Critical Thinking Co. What has he been using?
Critical Thinking Detective – Vocabulary Book 2 which is geared to Grades 5-12+. The fun of solving a mystery and the hunt to learn new words, what more could a 13 year ask for?

Critical Thinking Detective Vocabulary 2

What I am Reviewing

Critical Thinking Detective – Vocabulary Book 2
The Critical Thinking Co.
Diane Hartsig
Grades 5-12+
PDF Ebook, downloadable program
Thinking skills, Math, Vocabulary, Critical Thinking, Language Arts

Detective mystery cases (12 in all) with include new vocabulary words. As you read the mystery you need to define these vocabulary words as you seek to unravel the clues provided. As Critical Thinking Co. says

Each mystery requires careful reading, critical thinking, and synthesizing information to identify the innocent and guilty. The cases also develop observation skills, reading comprehension, deductive and inductive thinking skills. Learning to identify and evaluate evidence is the very heart of critical thinking.

The Finer Details

My son, once I printed off the 40 pages that make up this ebook, divided them into three sections. He stapled them together so he had the answers in one section, and the rest of the book divided in half.

One of the things I love about Critical Thinking Co. is their dedication to helping their students learn how to think logically. Learning how to use deductive reasoning is a skill that helps each student throughout their life.

Detective Vocabulary 2 takes that one step further, adding new vocabulary words taken from the ACT and SAT word lists and more.

As you can see from the above example, statements are numbered, vocabulary words are mixed in, and careful reading is required.

There are 12 individual cases

The Thieving Blatherskite
The Disruptive Denizen
The Pernicious Polluter
The Prevaricator
The Trying Troglodyte
The Insolent Imposter
The Malingering Manager
The Careless Curator
The Emphatic Editor
The Jackleg Carpenter
The Fluent Finagler
The Bellicose Hoarder

Each case is set up in a similar fashion. Scenario with statements, followed by images of the suspects.

After those images, are particular statements by the suspects along with an injunction to figure out who the guilty party is.

The suggestion is that students complete one case every two weeks. Despite that suggestion, my son really liked working through these. Over our review period he has completed most of the mysteries (has two left to go).

You can complete these just viewing them on your device (it downloads a program on your computer), but I will suggest that you print them off. As you can see from the image below, my son wrote all over them as he worked through each mystery.

After each mystery there is a vocabulary section. They provided a word list and a number of sentences. You needed to plug in a word to complete the sentence.

The enclosed answer key allowed my son to easily check his own work. He told me that he liked that they told him how they came to the answer. A couple of incorrect answers happened, but their key showed him where he went wrong.

One of the nice things in this detective book is you don’t have to discern truth from lie. All statements made are true. This leaves you with just needing to deduce the culprit.

Our Review

To be honest, I looked over the program before giving it to my lad and thought, good, looks like another solid Critical Thinking product. Printed it off and handed it to my lad. That was the extent of my interaction with it, beyond taking pictures for this review.

Ergo, moving on to my son’s review.

It was a good program, I got most everything correct. The only thing I wish was different is they should put a shortened definition under the blanks. Sometimes multiple words can fit into the same spot, making the sentence mean different things but still being grammatically correct. The end result is that you have to guess, and then sometimes you guess wrongly.

I liked that the cases are reasonably difficult to solve. The vocabulary words are included at the just right amount. Not too many to make it overwhelming, but enough that you need to define them in order to solve the case.

Promotion Code

Here is a promotion and coupon The Critical Thinking Co. would like to share with you my readers. 🙂 Pretty cool eh?

Free Shipping + 15% Off Any Size Order!

Coupon: TOSCREW19 Expires: 12/31/2019

I urge you to check out their website. You can get a weekly puzzle sent to you. There is much to explore. Find the time to do so eh? I think you will as impressed as we are.

Other Critical Thinking Co. reviews I have done in the past are: Critical Thinking Detective 1.

Read Other’s Reviews!

75 people have been busy reviewing for The Critical Thinking Co. We’ve been looking at the following:

Pattern Explorer Beginning (Grades 3-4)
Elementary Math Games (Grades 3-5)
Critical Thinking Detective – Vocabulary Book 2 (Grades 5-12+)
Dare to Compare: Math Level 2 (Grades 6-7)
Middle School Math Games (Grades 6-8)
Building Writing Skills – Essential Tips & Techniques (Grades 6-12+)
Vocabulary Virtuoso PSAT-SAT Book 1 (Grades 8-12+)
Vocabulary Virtuoso PSAT-SAT Book 2 (Grades 8-12+)

Social Media Links:

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George Berkeley, Philosopher

October 23, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Born in Ireland, George Berkeley had a strong desire to found a seminary in Bermuda. He never achieved his end but he did serve within the church as Bishop of Cloyne. He was an empiricist like John Locke, but he came to difference conclusions.

Like all empiricists, George Berkeley saw experience as the primary way to attain knowledge. He decided that what we perceive are ideas not the things in and of themselves. This thought pattern is called: Everything is an idea and not a physical thing.

The progression of his thought goes as follows

all knowledge comes from perception
what we perceive are ideas, not things in themselves
a thing in itself must lie in outside experience
so the world consists only of ideas
and minds that perceive those ideas
A thing only exists in so far as it perceives OR is perceived.

It is not that he denies the existence of the external world but believes that the only way to gain knowledge is through experience, and experience comes only from our perceptions. Since all our perceptions are merely ideas, we have no way to prove that anything more exists than ideas.

The question arises then. If I stop observing things, or if I am no longer being perceived, do I disappear? Berkeley’s response to this is that God perceives everything all the time. Therefore, since God perceived things all the time, nothing ever disappears.

None of us though share the same mind, hence why people perceive the world around us differently. My idea of what an pumpkin looks like isn’t exactly the same as how someone else sees a pumpkin, and definitely not the same way God would see that pumpkin. So the only way that I know that something exists is if I personally see it, which means only I can cause changes to the physical world around me. Which means I need to have the idea to do so, and since I can’t come up with ideas on my own, I need to rely on someone who perceives everything. Ergo I must rely on God (since he is the only one who can perceive everything) to supply with the idea to change the physical world around me.

Did he find truth?

Isn’t it interesting that Berkeley is aware of God’s eye being on us all the time. That he perceives us all the time. So a tree can fall in the forest (or a sparrow can lose a feather) God perceives, and therefore it happens. And then the idea that everything is immaterial, only ideas, and it’s ideas supplied by God that change the world. Isn’t that just a fascinating notion.

I see these ideas that Berkeley had and I think he is trying to show the dichotomy of faith. As Christians we know that God knows everything. He knows our past and our future. He gives us freewill to act, but he also knows that actions we will take before we even know we are going to take them. How does one truly explain this? Is Berkeley somewhat close? I don’t know.

In seeing the reliance we must have in God and how that would shape our perceptions of it, I see that as spot on. Really. Not necessarily the everything is an idea part, but that firm reliance on God to shape our thoughts, feelings and perceptions about that which is around us. I find myself intrigued. I can see his struggle to understand it and to think deeply upon it.

To go to my worksheet on George Berkeley, click here or on the image below

Seeking After Truth : Blaise Pascal

July 10, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Blaise Pascal lived from 1623-1662, he grew up the child of a government functionary who was fascinated be the sciences and math. He was homeschooled. Pascal grew up fascinated by maths, writing his first paper at age 16. In mathematics, he was an early pioneer in the fields of game theory and probability theory (in fact he invented the first digital calculator called the Pascaline). In philosophy he was an early pioneer in existentialism. He became of a Christian which lead him to abandon his maths and devote himself to religious writings. His book Pensees comes out of those writings. He died in poor health. You can learn more about his inventions here.

His goal in the Pensees was to bring the nonbeliever to such despair they would turn in faith to God. This book was finished post-humously. It was written with ex-Catholics in mind (libertins), those who had left the church due the influences of skeptics.

Pascal believed that one’s imagination was a powerful force, one that shaped our thinking and was very prone to error. Despite that, he thought that imagination often overrode their sense of reason. For instance, imagination often causes us to trust people we have no business trusting. Our imagination can lead us to discovering beauty, justice, truth or happiness on occasion, but ultimately what it generally shows us doesn’t really exist, ergo Imagination leads us astray. So what imagination shows us is actually, for the most part, false.

His goal in all this was to show libertins that the life of pleasure they had chosen was false. It wasn’t founded on fact. They have been misled by the power of imagination.

Pascal’s Wager

As so we introduced to Pascal’s Wager (learn more here). We have a choice. We can bet that God doesn’t exist and risk losing everything we have. OR we can bet that God does exist, and potentially gain everything. It’s not rational to risk losing everything, ergo belief in God is the most rational choice we can make.

Seeking After truth?

I think about Pascal and how he believes that our imagination lies to us more often than not. Think of how often we judge people based on their outward appearance, we imagine things about them…. things like the sloppy dresser doesn’t care about their appearance, that angry face means a bitter heart, that a sharp dresser has it all together or whatever. We make judgement calls all the time. BUT we shouldn’t be, should we?

God tells us not to judge a person by their outward appearance but instead to try to see their heart. After all, we are to seek after God’s own heart right? He looks to the heart, he doesn’t let outside appearances influence his call on their heart, or his ability to love them.

Are the judgements we make sometimes correct? For sure. BUT more oft than not, are they really? That’s what we are called to consider here isn’t it? Is what our imagination feeds us accurate? Do we need to look deeper and really think on it? To consider the truth (or lack there of) of our judgement call?

Free Printable!

To look into Pascal’s thoughts more, here’s a handy worksheet for you.

Others in this series:

Thomas Hobbes.
Francis Bacon.
Rene Descartes.

Review: Critical Thinking Detective Book 1

June 4, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Learning to think, and being able to pick up on clues is an important part of growing up. This skill is one taught by The Critical Thinking Co.™ who does an excellent job of developing critical thinking skills. My son most recently practiced these skills using Critical Thinking Detective™ Book 1. I invite you to come read our review.

The goals of The Critical Thinking Co is to help increase the problem solving skills of students so they are better equipped to meet all of life’s challenges. An increased ability to problem solve will improve grades. Rather than using a test and answer approach they apply logic to math, science, reading, writing and history.

The book we used, The Critical Thinking Detective Book 1 contains 12 logic puzzles in the form of detective cases to solve. It is recommended for grades 4-12. My son is 12 years old and therefore fit perfectly within this age range. We received the ebook version which I promptly printed off on our black and white printer. For the most part having the book in black/white worked well, except for one lesson which needed colour (he has not completed the book yet). Having downloaded it to my computer made it really easy for him to just double check the colours there (actually he just called out me .. mom.. who has a green shirt?)

My son did not work on this every day. He recently had surgery and long before the surgery happened I told him he’d have two weeks off of any type of schooling while he recovered from it. By the middle of week two he was needing to have more to do so I had him spend a bit of time working on this review. It surprised him that he got tired after working through two lessons. I did have him write out the answers to a couple of the lessons, but most of the time he just talked it out with me.

Each case consists of a few short paragraphs describing the case, witness statements, and statements from each of the four suspects. All of the statements are true. Illustrations of the suspects are provided in full colour. These illustrations proved useful in determining the guilty party frequently. The combination between visual and verbal clues was an important part of solving the crime. Answers are given in the back of the book along with the reason why.

Son’s Thoughts:

“Some of the clues are misleading. For instance in the football thief it talks about no socks and the only character that you can gather information from in that regards is an innocent character. How can you know if you can’t see their feet?”

“More writing space is needed”, “It would be nice if it were more difficult” “Would be good to have some where you couldn’t trust all of what the suspects say” “I thought it was an okay program.” “I’m not really happy with it, I would rather it be more difficult with more evidence with some true and some not so you need to weigh out the information more and really need to think more.” “I want it be like real detectives having to solve real crimes”.

My Thoughts:

I found it interesting working through the challenges with my lad. What I grabbed my attention was his comment “they are too easy”. Observation told me that they weren’t too easy until we started talking about them. If the lad was working through it all on his own, his initial guesses were sometimes wrong, but as soon as we talked about them, he’d get the correct answer very quickly. Working through with pen and paper, or talking about it made all the difference for him. Having a sounding board was useful for him. I don’t know if this is a learning to think issue, or just how his brain processes information differently. He’s a verbal lad who does well bouncing ideas off of people.

For me personally, some of the cases were challenging for me as an adult, but others were quite easy to figure out. It was a good assortment of challenges.

Read a past review here.

The Critical Thinking Co.™
Critical Thinking Detective™ Book 1
Two options: paperback or ebook
Price $8.99
Received: ebook

32 pages, 12 cases, four suspects, answers in back, all statements true

Critical thinking, logic problems, thinking skills

100 members of the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed the following items:

Understanding Pre-Algebra
Critical Thinking Detective Book 1
Something Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha
Critical Thinking Detective: Vocabulary
Dare to Compare Level 1
Vocabulary Riddles Book 1

I invite you to read our reviews at this link.

Social Media Links

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OH! Before I forget, The Critical Thinking Co is having a sale.

AND….

Free Critical Thinking Puzzles! – This gift is valued at $75, but is completely free for you! Sign up for their newsletter and receive a free critical thinking puzzle each week. Choose what Pre-k-8th grade level to receive.

Seeking After Truth : Thomas Hobbes

May 22, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Thomas Hobbes was orphaned in infancy and taken in by a wealthy uncle. Through the generosity of his uncle he received a good education, which in turn offered him a chance to travel. He is perhaps best known for his political philosophies but he wrote on a wide range of subjects, included his philosophy of physicalism.

His basic premise:

Thomas Hobbes thought that people and animals were nothing more than flesh and blood machines. He lived in a time when great advances were being made in the physical sciences.

A rough outline of his progression in thought goes as follows

Nothing with substance can exist
So everything is the universe is physical
A human being is therefore entirely physical
Therefore man is a machine.

Using science and mathematics he thought was the perfect counter for scholastic philosophy so predominant in medieval times. He saw no real need to balance the physical and the spiritual. He saw zero limits to what science could achieve. Therefore saw the whole world as being physical having length, breadth and depth. EVERYTHING in the universe was physical and nothing more. He did believe in invisible spirits but still believed that just because we couldn’t see them didn’t mean they didn’t have length, breadth and depth. He saw these spirits as moving through the body in a similar way we would view the nervous system today.

The only differentiation he made was to God. He believed that ONLY God could be described as an incorporeal being. God’s divinity is something that a physical human being could never fathom. Science and matters of faith were divergent and therefore God will always be beyond our comprehension.

Hobbes never dealt with how the mind works or affects these physical only beings. He believed that in time science would explain this aspect of our physical beings. He had a strong insistence that everything could be explained in the physical and in the end man is nothing but a machine.

Finding Truth:

Understanding the time that Hobbes lived in helps me to understand his philosophy regarding people. Living a time when physical science was making great strides, it is easy to see why he believed that man was merely a physical machine and believed that eventually everything about us could be explained in a scientific manner.

I see how he separated out God from the physical and made it very clear that God was different than all physical beings. God was incorporeal and it’s not possible for human beings to understand him. I see much truth in this understanding because honestly, can we, as sinful beings ever truly understand God? I just don’t see God as being as totally non-understandable as Hobbes makes him out to be. God’s word teaches us about God, and the example that Jesus set and how he lived, showed us God as well. The seeing God as different than everything else in the world is a pivotal thought that we often really fail to understand.

To download a worksheet to help you think about Thomas Hobbes more, CLICK HERE.