Building Thinking Skills Book 1
A colorful, research-backed workbook packed with logic puzzles, visual challenges, and reasoning activities that build real thinking skills—perfect for curious kids in grades 2–3.
$37.99
Quantity:
2026 Second-Grade Curriculum Kit
Building Thinking Skills Book 1
At some point, learning stops being about simply noticing patterns and starts becoming about making connections. Building Thinking Skills Book 1 helps your child take that next step by strengthening the reasoning skills that support success across every subject.
Designed for students in grade 3, this 320-page workbook develops four core analytical skills: classification, analogies, sequences, and similarities and differences. Along the way, your child also uses deductive reasoning, Venn diagrams, map skills, visual-spatial thinking, and other tools to organize and analyze information.
The activities are carefully sequenced to build confidence while steadily increasing in complexity. Rather than relying on memorization, your child learns to compare ideas, identify relationships, recognize patterns, and draw logical conclusions. These are the same skills students use when solving math problems, interpreting reading passages, conducting science investigations, and making sense of new information.
One of the things we appreciate about Book 1 is that it teaches children to slow down and look for connections. A puzzle that first appears confusing often becomes surprisingly manageable once your child learns to organize the information and think through it step by step.
As students work through analogies, logic exercises, and visual reasoning challenges, they learn to look beyond the obvious answer and support their conclusions with evidence. Those habits carry over into every subject area—and often into everyday life as well.
Many children begin the book by relying on guesses and intuition. By the end, they're more likely to look for patterns, eliminate possibilities, and explain their thinking. That's a meaningful shift, and it's exactly what this series is designed to encourage.
Research on the Building Thinking Skills series has shown measurable gains in academic performance, and the program has earned recognition from educators, homeschoolers, and organizations such as Mensa.
For children who are ready to move beyond basic thinking exercises, Building Thinking Skills Book 1 provides a thoughtful introduction to the analytical skills that support deeper learning and stronger problem-solving.
How to Use Building Thinking Skills Book 1
- Choose a pace that fits your homeschool. To complete the book in one year, plan on about 9 pages each week. If you'd rather spread the work over two years, 4–5 pages weekly works well too.
- If the size of the workbook feels intimidating, tear out the pages you'll be using that week. A smaller stack often feels much more manageable for both parent and child.
- Remember that this is a thinking course, not a handwriting course. If writing becomes a barrier, allow your child to dictate answers, discuss them aloud, or type responses instead. The goal is to develop reasoning skills, not produce perfect penmanship.
- Many families find it helpful to alternate between verbal and figural activities. The variety keeps lessons interesting while giving different types of thinking a chance to develop.
- Encourage your child to explain his reasoning whenever possible. Questions such as "How did you figure that out?" or "What clues helped you decide?" often lead to the richest learning moments.
- Some sections will feel easy, while others may require extra thought and persistence. That's exactly how the program is designed. The more challenging activities are often the ones that produce the biggest growth in reasoning skills.
- As your child works through the book, you'll likely notice a gradual shift. Instead of jumping to an answer, he'll begin looking for patterns, organizing information, and thinking through problems more systematically. That's the real goal of Building Thinking Skills Book 1—and a skill that reaches far beyond the workbook itself.
Building Thinking Skills Book 1 includes answers, objectives, and focus questions.
Publisher's Information
Publisher: The Critical Thinking Co™
Authors: Sandra Parks & Howard Black
Age Recommendation: 7-8
Grade Recommendation: 2nd-3rd
Faith-Based: No
Consumable: Yes (can be reproduced in your own home or classroom, but not for any commercial entity or organization)
Pages: 364
Activities: 1,072
ISBN: 9781601441492
Format: Softcover
Copyright: 2006
Made in: USA
review by the Flanders Family
”The workbooks are designed to be consumable, but I’ve always preferred to sit with a child on either side of me and work through the exercises together — at least for the beginning books. They think through each problem and take turns pointing to the correct answer.”
Read the Review
Customers earn Doodle Dollars for reviewing products they've purchased, and some promotions add an entry in a prize drawing. Rewards never depend on the rating given.
- September 23, 2026
ScotFlower
The Critical Thinking Company materials changed the course of my son's life. My son is high functioning auststic. These materials, though feeling redundant at times, have drastically helped my son in school performance, attention to detail, and complex reasoning. He recently was assessed for IQ and scored off the charts for his age and it's due to books like this. I know it might be tempting to skip them, but don't. They really help.
- September 17, 2026
jessica b.
My daughter doesn't really like doing this book but she is learning from it. I value the skills we are gaining.
- June 3, 2026
Karo
We enjoy the building thinking skills workbooks. I think that they help my student test well when standardized testing time rolls around. We found that the end of this book did get quite tricky and the amount of words they expected her to be comfortable writing was extensive. I saw that this year Timberdoodle moved the book into the kits for 3rd grade and I believe that is a good choice. We are looking forward to the next year that a building thinking skills book is included in our kit.
- April 2, 2026
Karolyn B.
Want to impress strangers or acquaintances with the level of problems your child can do on their own? Make sure to pack your building thinking skills worksheets. :) I love the skills taught in these books and I think it helps prepare for annual mandatory testing as well. I removed 1 star because I do find errors in the answer key at the back of the book periodically and that is a tiny negative for these books. We were excited that another one of these books was in the kit this year. We enjoy the mind stretching challenges.
- February 19, 2026
Helpful addition to our school day
Steph H.
This book covers some important skills for kids to learn and build on. I have appreciated how this book is laid out. As the school year has progressed, my second grader has started to do more of the pages independently. Every so often, depending on what else is happening during the school day, I will write for him or he will just tell me the answers. All in all, a great resource!
- October 5, 2024
Nice mix of questions
KitMama
We got this for my son when he started 3rd grade. We put tabs on each section so he can skip around and work on different types of skills.
- August 6, 2024
Great resrource
Mabilia R.
I am using this with my second child and am so glad timberdoodle recommends this one. We spread it out over two years. It's a nice way to add variety to our curriculum and touch on things that are not covered in our other books. It does get repetitive so sometimes we skip parts or jump to a section that has something my kid needs to work on.
- April 20, 2024
Im on the fence
Tabitha E.
I liked certain aspects of this book. I liked the concepts it introduced and that it built on the concept from easy to more difficult. I didnt like the amount of work on each page. I find it difficult to skip things and my second grader found it difficult to really focus on the work because of the amount of tasks per page.
- March 25, 2024
One Loves It, One Not So Much - Still Valuable
Vanessa H.
This book reviews intensely valuable thinking and visual skills. Important for future success in math and thinking skill development. One of my kids LOVES working in this workbook and one would rather do almost any other subject - but it's important enough that they both have worked it from cover to cover.
- March 11, 2024
Just Alright
Rachelle
My daughter does fine with the book. Some of the chapters require a decent proficiency with reading. My kid struggles with reading and needs me to read each page to her. She was able to complete the math on her own.
