The Critical Thinking Co. Language Smarts E - TOS Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

I've talked before about my struggle to find language arts programs that I'm pleased with. It's so hard to find something comprehensive that doesn't move too fast, too slow, or have too many parts. When I was given the chance to review Language Smarts E from The Critical Thinking Co., I decided Titus would be the perfect reviewer for this program. My older daughter reviewed this exact same workbook six years ago.

What is Language Smarts?

Language Smarts is a workbook with over 400 pages with a suggested grade level of 4 and age of 9-10. Each page has short and simple explanations of each concept being taught, as well as examples and charts to help your child understand the lesson. The lessons have easy to follow instructions and lots of variety - word searches, fill-in-the-blanks, write your own sentences, graphic organizers, puzzles, and more. 

The different topics covered in this workbook are:

• Syllables
• Word Parts 
• Word Relationships 
• Spelling
• Reference Materials 
• Parts of Speech 
• Sentences
• Punctuation
• Using Words Correctly
• Reading and Writing
• Writing

Each of these topics has lots of different subtopics. For example, under the Reference Materials section there are lessons on using a dictionary, an online dictionary, a thesaurus, an online encyclopedia, and how to search the internet for a topic. I really like the fact that using online resources is included. In the day and age we live in, knowing how to search the internet for a research topic or find the definition of a word is a valuable skill to have.

Interspersed between each topic are lessons called Editor in Chief, where your child has to edit a few paragraphs. They may have to find spelling errors, punctuation errors, or word usage errors. I like the fact that these lessons break up the normal lessons with something a bit different, yet they're still practicing the concepts that they've learned. 

There are also Writing Detective lessons in this workbook. Your child will read a story and answer questions about what they've read. This a great reading comprehension exercise. Then they will follow the directions on the following pages to write their own article for a newspaper explaining what happened in the story they read. We haven't gotten to one of these lessons yet, but they look fun!

How did we use Language Smarts?

Titus used this workbook during his "summer school" hour several times a week. We are finished with our regular curriculum for the year but are keeping up with a few subjects this summer. Titus normally completes one lesson at a time. The lessons vary from one to two pages long and take less than ten minutes. We started from the beginning and worked through the lessons on syllables, prefixes, and suffixes. Most of this is review for Titus, since he finished 4th grade this year, but it's a review that he needs!

How do we like Language Smarts?

I love this workbook. The lessons are short and effective so Titus doesn't get bored or frustrated. I feel like there is a very wide variety of topics covered in this workbook - plenty for a year of language arts lessons. It's more than just grammar but not too broad. When you try to cover too many topics, they don't get covered well. Language Smarts covers the perfect amount of topics for a 4th or 5th grade language arts course.

Each lesson explains the topic very well in a short space. The explanation on the "Prefixes" page is this: "A prefix is added to the beginning of a word to form a new word with a different meaning. Not all words have a prefix." Then there is a chart with six common prefixes (dis-, im-, mis-, pre-, re-, and un-), their meaning, an example word, and the meaning of that word. There is not too much information overload for your child.

The exercises are also very concise and to the point without being like 'busy work.' On this same "Prefixes" page, the instructions are to write two different words for each of the six prefixes given. Then they have to write six sentences, each with one word from the list they made. It took Titus about ten minutes to finish this lesson.

Each lesson is also uncluttered with plenty of writing space and white space on the pages. There are some color illustrations, but it's not so busy that it would be distracting. It's also not so bland that your child will hate to look at the pages. The pages are also nice and thick.

I plan to use The Critical Thinking Co. Language Smarts E with Titus next year for his 5th grade language arts program. This workbook is available as a paperback or e-book for $42.99. Check out what the Crew Members thought of this workbook and several others by clicking the banner below.