There are a few companies that I love to review homeschool products for! These companies seem to always have quality products that are engaging and educational. One of those companies is Classical Academic Press. And this time, the product that I got to review was another of their logic curriculum: The Discovery of Deduction. I received Discovery of Deduction; An Introduction to Formal Logic, and The Discovery of Deduction Teacher’s Edition to try out with the kids. This program is appropriate for grades 8 and up (Thomas and I worked on it together, though I felt that the older the student, the more independent they might be completing this program).
Logic is (very basically) how we argue. Not heated argument, but persuasive arguing. I always think of logic as using reasoning instead of heated words to educate and convince someone on a subject.
We received The Discovery of Deduction Student Text, which retails for $26.95, and is 324 pages long. This text is softcover, and consumable (but is also available in Kindle and iBook). The workbook is broken up into 4 units (Introductions, Propositions and their Relationships, Categorical Syllogisms, and Terms and Definitions). Each unit is broken further into 2 to 7 lessons, with questions for each lesson. Each lesson has sections to read, define (questions), and review. There is also an Appendix and Glossary in the back of the text.
The Teacher’s Edition is 351 pages long, and retails for $29.95. This is also softcover, and is basically a copy of the student text with all the answers to questions, additional notes, ideas for practice and informative discussions. The Teacher’s Edition also contains lesson plans for completing the program in either a semester (18 wks), or a school-year (36 wks).
Thomas (who seems to be my resident reviewer since he enjoys new challenges) was my helper with this review, with an older kid sitting in here and there (hey, we live in 400 sq. ft.) – everyone gets lessons/discussions if they are oral, like it or not! Thomas enjoys logic, and found this program to be interesting and informative. He worked on it, on average, for about half an hour each day (some days a bit longer, some days we were on location 😉 ).
There was lots of new terminology to learn, and this program included lots of practical application for what we were learning instead of just reading about it. It included a lot of reading; I appreciate a program where the ‘leg-work’ is done for me. The Teacher’s Edition gives great suggestions and scripts for examples, and I didn’t have to dig or stretch my brain trying to come up with examples for different lessons.
Last year we reviewed The Art of Argument, which is suggested as a pre-cursor for The Discovery of Deduction. We really liked that curriculum also, but it is not mandatory to have completed AoA to work on Discovery of Deduction. (We also reviewed God’s Great Covenant Bible study, which we are still using, from CAP) I have been very pleased with every product from CAP, and feel that they are quality products, both in content and physical product, and feel that the prices are fair.
If you would like to read what other homeschoolers have to say about The Discovery of Deduction, you can find more TOS Review Crew reviews here.
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