Reading Detective (Critical Thinking Co.) Giveaway!

 

 

 

 

 

The Critical Thinking Company sent me the Reading Detective A1 software to review. The A1 level is designed for grades 5-6. Reading Detective teaches analysis, synthesis, and vocabulary skills to develop reading comprehension skills. The player solves “cases” by answering questions about reading passages.

I had trouble with the software that I was sent. I’m not sure if it was a Vista compatibility issue or a corrupted disc. I contacted customer service and they were able to send me a download version of the software, which worked fine. It was frustrating to spend time trying to get the program to work, but the company did remedy the problem.

When we finally got Reading Detective going, Emily loved it! She’s actually spending time every day (in summer vacation) reading passages and answering questions. She tells me that the stories are very interesting and excitedly runs to tell me every time she is promoted to a new rank of detective. (Since she has spent the summer reading Nancy Drew books and other mysteries, this theme certainly has captured her attention!)  A feature that I particularly like is that every question has 2 parts: the first is a reading comprehension/critical thinking question about the passage; the second part instructs the child to highlight the particular sentence in the passage that supports the answer she chose. Since I have a child who prefers to guess rather than think, I love that she is required to support every answer. The questions are not asking for just factual answers; they encourage the child to read the facts and to draw conclusions from them.

We will continue to use and enjoy the Reading Detective program in our homeschool program this year.

Reading Detective is available as software ($29.99) or in book form ($23.99) from The Critical Thinking Co. and other vendors.

Check out the Critical Thinking Co. widget in my sidebar, where you can download free activities!

Giveaway: The Critical Thinking Co. is giving away a Reading Detective A1 software package to one of my readers  (US or Canada only).  To enter, visit the Critical Thinking Co. site and tell me which other product your kids would like. Giveaway ends on Sept. 7. Winner will be chosen by random.org.

Additional entries: (Leave a separate comment for each.)

1. Follow Debbie’s Homeschool Corner on Google Friend Connect.

2.  Blog about this giveaway. (2 entries—leave a separate comment for each entry.)

3. Enter another of my giveaways.

4. Make a comment on the Super Star Speech blog.

5. Add the Back 2 School Blog Bash button to your blog.

I received this product free from Critical Thinking Co. in order to write this review. No other compensation was provided and all opinions are my own.