Activities For Critical Thinking

Here, 19-yearold Dustin poses for a Senior picture. She was thrilled to see our "Mark Kistler Draw Squad" book.

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As the summer months approach, it’s more important than ever to focus on helping your child build their critical thinking skills.

These are the higher-level thinking skills in which students make decisions, evaluate information, synthesize and apply what they have learned.

A great way for students to really show what they know is by giving them the opportunity to create something new.

This could be a literacy-based activity, like creating their own comic book.

A great way to build critical thinking skills and have fun at the same time is to play strategy games that require patience and multi-step thinking.

For example, checkers and chess are great games for critical thinking skills because children need to be able to think about each move and its repercussions several moves later.

It could be a STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Math) activity, where your child is tasked with building a new machine for a specific purpose, like creating a roller coaster for a new amusement park. They encourage them to apply their knowledge and synthesize their learning, engaging critical thinking.

You might think of art as just painting and drawing, but this is just a starting point.

What a joy to share Sonlight with the extended generations in our family!

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas.