Wow, this (Building Thinking Skills Beginning) book is full of wonderful exercises for even the youngest children. My daughter just turned 3 and she can’t wait till schooltime so she can do “her school” which is this book. I was amazed at how much she could comprehend at such a young age. The exercises are worthwhile and will lay a foundation for learning. A definite worthwhile purchase, I was skeptical with the price tag significantly higher than the Kumon Books, but it’s been worth the difference.

The Fallacy Detective

Adds a zing of fun to our school day!!

Each year we find one favorite supplement to our core curriculum that adds a zing of fun to our school day. This year we discovered The Fallacy Detective. The thirty-six short (short!) lessons in recognizing bad reasoning require no preparation, cover all the basics of logical thought without being “teachy,” and keep us laughing. Now, when I find a commercial or news article that contains a fallacy, I don’t have to explain it to my daughter while she stares at me with glassy eyes. I hand it to her and see if she can find the logic error. Fallacies have become this year’s game. The lessons in this book will serve my children well in their lifetime interpersonal relationships as well as in becoming logical thinkers in a world of tricks and sound-bytes. It’s also the perfect introductory book to future unit studies on advertising, the media, relational aggression, psychology, and current events. My favorite thing about the book? Hearing, “Just one more chapter, please?”!

This game (Rolit Junior) has become a favorite because of its wide age appeal. While challenging enough to keep older children constantly strategizing, it is simple enough to captivate the little players, too. Highly recommended!

Developing the Early Learner

These books are pretty good. They’re black and white, so they aren’t visually interesting, but most of the exercises are pretty good. They’re best for students who are ready to ‘do school’ with formal seat work but who aren’t ready to write well.

miniLUK Starter Pack

I ordered the 1st grade curriculum and when I saw that it came with the MiniLUK I honestly didn’t know what to think.  What I did think was that my son was going to have trouble with it and probably not like it.  Boy, was I wrong.  I had opened it up to figure it out and he starts playing with it.  He spent the whole evening playing with the MiniLUK.  My husband had to drag my son away from it so he could go to bed.  I am excited about buying more books for this game.  This is defiantly worth the money!

Jill K.

Mount Pleasant, PA

Timberdoodle carries many additional miniLuk and BambinoLuk sets.

Color Shifting Illusions Thinking Putty

I ordered Thinking Putty for myself. I have  A.D.D and wanted to see how well it might help me center. I LOVE it. I’ve noticed that I  WANT to use it (unlike many other fidgets) and that I can do enough things to keep it from getting boring. As a fidget it is wonderful. I focus more when I am working on stuff, everything from reading to watching my son play.

Besides everything I’ve done with it I discovered there are “experiments” on the Crazy Aaron page. Things like smacking it with a hammer, and stretching it from the ceiling. They discuss the science behind it.

The absolutely ONLY serious downside in my mind is the price. BUT you get a very generous amount. It almost hurts my hands to use it all at once.

The ONLY other, and a minor thing is the color. The picture makes it appear like several colors, and I thought that while messing with it I might see color combos that would inspire some of my artwork. Really it is just a fancy gray.

A wonderful teaching aid for introducing your child to logic

Simple rules, fun pieces, good quality! I enjoyed the puzzles along with five of my children. This kind of ’school’ is easy to look forward to! It was so much fun that we wanted more puzzles! Also, so appealing that guests would pick it up and play too!

I bought this (Metallic Colors Thinking Putty) because it looked fun, and sometimes we all like to do something with our hands while listening or watching things. It has been marvelous, we love the metallic colours, are looking forward to getting some glow-in-the-dark putty. the one thing I would mention is that the heat-sensitive putty is not so effective in hot climates because it doesn’t cool down enough for hot hands to make a difference. Fun.

These blocks (Pattern Play) exceeded our expectations. We have 10 children, and therefore have tried many toys. This one is truly one of the best we’ve found over the years. There are 40 different pattern cards to make with the blocks, with several different levels of complexity. The blocks are smooth and chunky and will stand the test of time. There is even a cloth bag to store them, but they are attractive enough to leave out on the wooden tray as a coffee-table toy. These blocks seem to ‘beckon’ the children to play with them! A real classic.

Thinking Putty

Think Again!

Think again! We bought thinking putty as Christmas gifts for our children. It ended up in our daughter’s hair, on the carpet, on the couch…. It was worse than gum! We’re generally careful about where our children play with potentially messy toys, but as this is billed as an item to fiddle with while doing school, we allowed it in our schoolroom, aka family room. Big mistake! We called Timberdoodle to find out how to remove the putty from the carpet and they in turn called the company. We followed all the instructions and while the stickiness is gone, we still have lovely dark stains spotting the carpet. And our daughter had her hair trimmed….

They love it!

I originally bought the putty because it looked like a lot of fun and I needed something for my parents who really NEED nothing. My nine children are all grown and I already had Christmas gifts for my grandchildren that year. I wasn’t sure they would really use it, but they love it! They each set theirs (I bought different colors for each of them) beside their recliner and use it to exercise their hands while they watch TV. It helps keep their joints from being stiff, too. Just a warning-put it back in its container when you finish! It conforms to the shape of its container as it rests. If you put it in something with a small mouth you might not get it out very easily or if you leave it sitting in a ball it might spread out all over your table! Don’t worry though, you can scrape it up with itself and roll it up and start over. It is really addictive as anyone who sits in the chair and happens to pick it up will tell you! I have plans to purchase some for myself someday, but I haven’t needed enough items to make the cost plus shipping a reasonable price for something I just want and don’t need. The price on the item is good, but the shipping cost for just the one item makes it too expensive. Maybe I’ll have to convince some friends to go in with me and buy a case of it!

Thinking Putty is available from Timberdoodle. Check out our shipping special of $4.95 on any order.