The Critical Thinking Co. - Dare to Compare Math Review

We recently had the opportunity to review a wonderful addition to our homeschool week.  Brayden had the opportunity to review Dare to Compare Math - Level 2 from The Critical Thinking Co.  Dare to Compare Math has been another home run for our family!

Dare to Compare Math - Level 2 was created for approximately Grades 6-7.  There are over 150 math problems for students to work their way through that encourage kids to make comparisons and use their critical thinking skills to make the best decision.  The problems at this level are multi-step, encouraging students to work their way through problems that they will be facing in common situations in their life.  These include price comparisons and measuring skills.  

The unique way that The Critical Thinking Co. has created this math book allows students to practice and use skills that they have been learning including working with fractions, ratios, percentages, and proportions.  All of these skills work together with future math topics students will soon be working on in geometry, algebra and even calculus as they get into high school.

We received the print version of Dare to Compare Math - Level 2, but you can purchase this product as digital file also.  But the digital file can only be used with Windows 7/8/10, it will not work with Mac OS.  The printed workbook is well made, and pages are reproducible in your own home or classroom.  Which is a great option for families with many children.  The cost of the workbook in both formats is only $12.99. This makes Dare to Compare Math - Level 2 an extremely budget friendly tool to give your students extra material to fine tune their critical thinking skills in math.

I wanted to challenge Brayden using Dare to Compare Math - Level 2.  He's in high school, but unable to really handle super complicated algebra problems due to his learning disabilities.  So the idea of using this math book with him to work through more common problems that he needs to tackle in real life was enticing to me.  

The workbook has large areas to work in, but not quite large enough for Brayden.  So he used scratch paper that I kept together in a notebook for his assessment.

The pages are not distracting for kids that struggle with attention issues. 

Do you hate it when math books DO NOT provide an explanation or leave you hanging if your child is struggling?  You are left googling the answer so that both of you can figure it out!!  Dare to Compare Math - Level 2 does not leave you hanging!!  There is an explanation for each problem in the book.  So if your student (or you) is struggling to understand on how to complete a problem, you have the information right in front of you to help your student get through.

I assigned Brayden roughly 2 - 3 problems a day to complete on top of his regular math studies.  Depending on the problems that day, using Dare to Compare Math - Level 2 was only about 15 minutes of his school day.  The problems in Dare to Compare Math - Level 2 are definitely multi-step and require thinking....thus the reason that your student will really need to dig into their critical thinking brain to solve them.  Having just a couple problems a day to tackle was a good balance for him.  But you can easily adjust what you have your student tackle each day, since you know their skill level best.  Brayden did struggle...but we kept just saying that we needed our thinking caps on.  Our time so far in Dare to Compare Math - Level 2 has also helped me to see areas where he needs to work and the cracks in his foundation math skills.

We have loved all the materials that we have ever used from The Critical Thinking Co.  Dare to Compare Math - Level 2 is definitely a great addition to our homeschool life.  I plan on starting Lydia in the book during the summer since she's advancing up further in math skills, and needs some extra help.  I hope that they get the Mac OS system requirements adjusted for their digital products.  There is so much more that I want to get in digital format, but only have Mac currently.

Click on the link below to see what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew thought of the materials that they reviewed from The Critical Thinking Co..