Educational resources for critical thinking for elementary age kids

[Anonymous]

Has anyone come across any good educational resources that teach critical thinking about what you see/read/hear at the elementary school level?

I realize I'm being sort of generic, but I have a 3rd grader who will repeat xyz that he heard, or yes, come across a video (though we monitor and restrict) that says xyz. Besides debating with him on the particular topic in the moment, I'm curious about other resources that prompt kids to think critically rather than immediately accept information as fact.

[Anonymous]

Is your child suspicious by nature? Early childhood involves learning facts, once you develop a deep enough fact base and given a decent level of intelligence the ability to think critically develops.

Now if your child is suspicious and not trusting of authority I could see them questioning info they are exposed to, and if they have an above average intelligence and unfettered access to the Internet and the ability to figure out junk info from info from reputable sources maybe you’d have a little critical thinker on your hands bit I don’t know.

Now my kid is a genius and more than capable of thinking critically, he’s in the 1st grade, but he also spends a lot of time in the principle’s office because his teachers are afraid he is going to stage a circle time coup!

[Anonymous]

Critical Thinking Company has some good resources. Their workbooks like Building Critical Thinking Skills and Mind Binders come to mind. Pruffolk Press has some great logic books for kids, like Logic Liftoff or Orbiting with Logic.

Beast Academy (and then AoPS) is the best I've found for math-based critical thinking and logic.

[Anonymous]

We love this book for good family conversations:

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Ideas-Curious-Minds-Introduction/dp/1999747143/ref=sr_1_11?crid=1K8UBPD1KTOUR&keywords=kids+philosophy+book&qid=1680044961&sprefix=kids+philosophy+book%2Caps%2C89&sr=8-11

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is your child suspicious by nature? Early childhood involves learning facts, once you develop a deep enough fact base and given a decent level of intelligence the ability to think critically develops.

Now if your child is suspicious and not trusting of authority I could see them questioning info they are exposed to, and if they have an above average intelligence and unfettered access to the Internet and the ability to figure out junk info from info from reputable sources maybe you’d have a little critical thinker on your hands bit I don’t know.

Now my kid is a genius and more than capable of thinking critically, he’s in the 1st grade, but he also spends a lot of time in the principle’s office because his teachers are afraid he is going to stage a circle time coup!

Really kewl story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone come across any good educational resources that teach critical thinking about what you see/read/hear at the elementary school level?

I realize I'm being sort of generic, but I have a 3rd grader who will repeat xyz that he heard, or yes, come across a video (though we monitor and restrict) that says xyz. Besides debating with him on the particular topic in the moment, I'm curious about other resources that prompt kids to think critically rather than immediately accept information as fact.

In 4th grade, we did exercises to distinguish opinion/bias vs. fact. In public school. It was published learning material. Obviously years ago though.