The Fallacy Detective

 

I received this complimentary product through the 

Homeschool Review Crew.

The Fallacy Detective is a softcover workbook that contains thirty-eight lessons on how to recognize bad reasoning. What is a fallacy? A fallacy is a "mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument. A failure in reasoning which renders an argument invalid. An error in logic, a place where someone has made a mistake in his thinking." I don't know about you, but over the past year or two I have been saying more frequently to myself and others, "What has happened to logical thinking in America? So many things that are happening are just jaw-droppingly crazy." This book will help students and even adults recognize bad reasoning. The Fallacy Detective is recommended for ages 12 and up. 

Each of the thirty-eight lessons are followed by fill-in-the-blank exercises for the students to complete. Since I read the lessons aloud to several of my kiddos, I read the exercises aloud and had my kiddos take turns answering the questions. We had some pretty fun and interesting conversations. The book starts out with an introduction explaining, What is a Fallacy? The goal behind the book is to help you better be able to spot fallacies in everyday life, in what you read and hear, and in yourself as well. We as parents needs to give our children the tools to help them sift through the myriad of thoughts and views that are bombarded their way every day during a very impressionable time in their lives. By the time students complete the thirty-eight lessons they should be able to know how to spot bad reasoning, put a higher value on good reasoning, and know how to avoid fallacies in their own reasoning. For students in high school - The Fallacy Detective can be used for 0.5 or 1.0 high school credits in either logic or critical thinking. 

What is included in the book?

The Inquiring Mind

1. Exercise Your Mind
2. Love to Listen
3. Opposing Viewpoints

Avoiding the Question

1. Red Herring Fallacy
2. Recognizing Red Herrings
3. Special Pleading
4. Ad Hominem Attack
5. Genetic Fallacy
6. Tu Quoque
7. Faulty Appeal to Authority
8. Appeal to the People
9. Straw Man

Making Assumptions

1. The Story of Aroup Goupta
2. Assumptions
3. Circular Reasoning
4. Equivocation
5. Loaded Question
6. Slippery Slope
7. Part-to-Whole
8. Whole-to-Part
9. Either-Or

Statistical Fallacies

1. What is a Generalization?
2. Hasty Generalization
3. What is an Analogy?
4. Weak Analogy
5. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
6. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc in Statistics
7. Proof by Lack of Evidence

Propaganda

1. What is Propaganda?
2. Appeal to Fear
3. Appeal to Pity
4. Bandwagon
5. Exigency
6. Repetition
7. Transfer
8. Snob Appeal
9. Appeal to Tradition and Appeal to Hi-Tech
10. Find Some Propaganda on Your Own

Lesson 19 which is a lesson on Part-to-Whole which is defined as "when someone says that what is true of part of something must also be true of the whole thing, he is using the part-to-whole fallacy." They give an example of a child's understanding of one single feather's weight verses a feather pillow. Another example is someone who talks about how delicious their homemade cake is going to be because their ingredient are of the finest quality. Well, if the person doesn't know how to bake a cake, just because it is made of the best ingredients may turn out horrible. There were several other examples given in the lesson. 

One of the Exercise Questions was:

Rich Husband to His Wife: Dear, I haven't spared a penny to get the most exquisite materials and furnishings for our new home. I hope you're happy. It's the best house money could buy. 

Wife: Why does this marble floor in the dining room seem to slope down toward the kitchen? Look! The zebra book dining table is sliding toward the dumbwaiter! And what are the bronze electrical outlets doing in the vaulted ceiling? How am I supposed to reach them? And why does the hall light switch make all the toilets flush? And what is a smoke detector doing inside the fireplace? 

                 part-to-whole fallacy                                                 not part-to-whole fallacy

The answer to this question is part-to-whole. This falls under the Making Assumptions category. 

Here is another example of an Exercise Question taken from another lesson. 

What form of bad reasoning, if any, do you find in the example?

"That company's products can't possibly be good. It was started by a narcissistic creep." 

The answer to this one is Genetic Fallacy. 

The definition of genetic fallacy is - "condemning an argument because of where it began, how it began, or who began it."  This falls under Avoiding the Question. 

A form of a Statistical Fallacy is Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc - "Assuming that since A happened before B, A must have caused B."

A commonly know form of Propaganda is Appeal to Fear - "Moving us to fear the consequences of not doing what someone wants."

Throughout the book you will find funny fallacy cartoons. Here are just a few. 

At the end of the thirty-eight lesson is a game, The Fallacy Detective Game. In the game you actually get to make your own fallacies. Also in the back of the book there is a section entitled, Short List of Fallacies. This is a three page list of all of the fallacies taught in the book. Each fallacy is listed with its definition and then an example. At the end of the book is the Answer Key for each lesson. 

I found the content of book to be both relevant and easy to understand for upper middle school and high school students. My 13-year-old and high school age siblings used this book. My middle schooler was able to understand and follow the lessons and engage in the exercises. I will be using this to go toward a half credit hour in Logic for high school. I will be counting this as early credit for my 8th grader towards high school credit. I would highly recommend this book to other homeschoolers who are looking for a fun yet thorough way for your student to learn informal logical fallacy. Be sure to read what my Fellow Crew Members  had to say about The Fallacy Detective as well as Archer and Zowie which some of my other crew members reviewed. 

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The HomeScholar LLC

I received this complimentary product through the 

Homeschool Review Crew.

The HomeScholar LLC is an online tool to help parents homeschool their high school students. The Total Transcript Solution helps parents create professional quality homeschool transcripts. I received a 6 month membership for the review period. What is great about Total Transcript Solution is that it costs $47.

What exactly do you get with your membership: 

• over 7 hours of Homeschool Transcript Modules on making transcripts
• Homeschool transcript eBook
• 10 transcript templates in Word, Excel, and Pages (Mac) format
• One 20 minute phone or email consultation with Lee Binz
• Lifetime Access
• Bonuses 

There are 4 main sections to the Total Transcript Solution. 

1. Training
2. Book Instruction
3. Choose Your Favorite Template
4. Get Feedback And Support

Training

The information in the videos that Lee provides is amazing. The workbooks, sample transcripts, handouts, and planning guides were very helpful to me as I am a very visual person. Being able to print out these aids for reference is very helpful to look back on as you are working on your child transcript. In the video, High School Grades and Credits, Lee provides a color wheel to break down three different grading scales. In the, One Hour Transcript Workshop, Lee breaks down what a student needs to accomplish in order to receive a full credit, a half credit, and then an A, B, C, and then grades below a C. This is extremely helpful, especially for those that are creating a high school transcript for the first time. The GPA calculator! Knowing how to calculate a GPA is simple and easy. Lee's handout give's you step-by-step instructions. I will say that Total Transcript Solution would have really helped me a lot back when I was creating my very first high school transcript.  

With each audio download additional resource material is provided which can be printed out if you wish. 

Choose Your Favorite Template

This is taken from the FAQ: Will this work on my Mac? "The templates are formatted for MS Word, Excel, and Pages. The Pages document will run on a Mac. If you need to open a Word or Excel document on your Mac you will need a special application. There are many free and paid programs out there that allow Macs to open Microsoft products."

There are 10 sample transcripts in various formats and styles. Some of the sample transcripts are completed so that you can see what a completed transcript should look like. I really like that she has so many sample transcript options available. Everyone has a different idea as to what they feel looks best and works best for them when it comes to working with a transcript. Lee points out that colleges and universities prefer to have more detailed courses on a transcript. For example instead of English III, English IV, they like to see Writing and 20th Century Literature, Writing and British Literature. Be sure to add in your student's extra curricular activities, volunteer positions, honors, etc. Driver's Education can count as 0.5 credit hours. These are just some of the things that you will learn about creating your students transcript. 

Book Instruction

This eBook is for those that learn best from reading. I enjoyed reading through the eBook and found that I actually took in more by reading that by listening to the audios. Important take aways are in highlighted boxes or are bolded. This eBook will be your best friend during the 4 years that your student is in high school. It is definitely worth printing out! 

Examples of highlighted boxes and bolded text. 

Lee provides one 20 minute personal phone consultation. 

Get Feedback and Support

I was very impressed with Total Transcript Solution. The HomeScholar LLC has several other resources for the parents of high school age students. My Fellow Crew Members reviewed the four following HomeHighSchoolHelp.com resources: Total Transcript Solution, Comprehensive Record Solution, High School Solution, and College Launch Solution. Be sure to check out what they had to say about all of the resources. 

Social Media

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/homescholar/

Dyslexia Gold

 

I received this complimentary product through the 

Homeschool Review Crew.

Dyslexia Gold is an online program that helps children that are struggling with reading. I reviewed the Catch Up Intervention that is specifically geared for ages 7-16. There are also two other subscriptions available. The first is an Early Intervention that is for ages 4-7 and the second is a Dyslexia Screener for ages 6-16. Dyslexia Gold can be used for children with and without dyslexia. 

I do not have a child with dyslexia so I did not use the dyslexia screener. However, I think that this is a great tool that is specifically designed to aid in helping to decipher if your child is struggling with dyslexia. And then a whole program specifically designed to help your child succeed.

My daughter and I explored all of the areas of Dyslexia Gold. The Fluency Builder, Spelling Tutor, and Times Table Tutor were way too elementary for my daughter. I explored all of these three sections in length and was very impressed with all of them. The Fluency Builder takes a step beyond phonics which is the key to helping the struggling reader and those with dyslexia. They focus on the Phonological Deficit. Spelling Tutor not only covers the most common 1,000 words but it personalizes the program based on your child's mistakes. Times Table Tutor is based on Singapore Math with is a great math curriculum. If my child or children were younger I would most definitely consider using this program. I can see how this program would help the child that is struggling with reading. 

The games were FUN! My daughter played them and so did I. The target practice was fun using the 3D glasses. Alien Whack was just fun! Speed Fix took concentration and memory. The eye tracking games definitely serve a great purpose not only as a game but for teaching a child to track words across a page. I could see how Dyslexia Gold used these games to help a child focus, track, and eye movement. The games are meant to help the child improve comprehension, accuracy in their reading, and reading speed. 

Engaging Eyes

Children with dyslexia as well as those that struggle with reading find it difficult to focus their eyes on one point and then track words across a page. When reading each eye looks at different letters and the brain in turn receives two different messages. This in turn leads to slow reading, skipping words, reversing letters, seeing double, easily getting fatigued when reading, etc. Engaging Eyes consists of eight fun games that children can play to help them overcome these difficulties. 

Target Practice

This is a 3D game that helps children practice using both of their eyes

to focus on a single point. Using 3D glasses your child will use their computer 

keyboard up and down arrows along with the spacebar. They will line up the middle

target to match each corresponding target around the circle. When the target is properly

hit it will crash the outer circle and explode it. Your child will play multiple rounds and 

then will receive points at the end. They will receive stars as they level up. There is a 

Target Practice A, B, and C.

Whack An Alien 

Using the spacebar your child will have to stay focused as aliens pop

up from left to right, up and down on the screen. This game practices eye movement.

There are two levels to this game. This game reminds me a lot of the Whack It game

that kids play at arcade venues where they hit the things as they pop up. 

Speed Fix

Your child will watch fast jumping animals as they move up and down and then 

left to right across the computer screen. Next, it will as you to stare at a dot.

The dot will remain on the screen for only a second or two. Next, a series of four

letters will appear on the screen. These will only remain or a second or two also. 

Next, it will as you if you saw the letter a in the series of the four letters that flashed 

up on the screen. You will click either yes or no. You will do this ten times. There are 

five levels to each Speed Fix A and B. 

Eye Tracking A

There are letters that will appear one at a time from left to right just as you

would read a book. Each time you child sees the letter b they are to press the

spacebar. Your child is directed to keep their head still and to just move their eyes. 

Eye Tracking B

With this eye tracking game your child will press the spacebar whenever

they see a word highlighted that begins or ends with the letter e. Again, it is 

important to try and only move your eyes and not your head. 

Fluency Builder

Another section of Dyslexia Gold is Fluency Builder. Beyond just being a phonics

program. It targets both phoneme manipulation and phonological awareness. 

Phoneme manipulation is "the ability to modify, change, or move the individual

sounds in a word." An example would be to have the word Hot and then change the

H in Hot to make a new word such as Cot or Dot. Phonological awareness is "the ability

to recognize and work with sounds in spoken language." An example the word Apple.

You hear /ap/ and /ple/. In the word apple we hear two syllables. Those are units of sound. 

Another example is called segmenting syllables. If you as a child what two words do

you hear in the word Rainbow they should say, Rain and Bow. 

Spelling Tutor

With Spelling Tutor your child will learn the most common 

1,000 words. Your child will right words and sentences from dictation 

and then mark what they got wrong. Spelling Tutor personalizes the program to

your child based on your child's mistakes. 

Times Table Tutor

With the Times Table Tutor you have several options. You can have your child

take a test where they will answer 25 multiplication questions. They will have 6 

seconds to answer each question. Next, there is a setting option where you can either 

choose to review all of the multiplication facts from 2-12 or you can choose to work on 

one specific multiplication fact family. When working on the multiplication fact families

where your child is shown problems at the top and answers below they will work through 

a series of six problems and then they will be asked to work through the problems faster and 

then faster. Then they will be given nine problems then twelve problems. Again, you can

choose if you want to work on one fact families are all. 

For the parent, Dyslexia Gold provides reports so that you are able to see the progress that your child is making along the way. There is an Overall Report that shows your child's Reading Age and Spelling Age. Under Vision Training section you can see the progress that your child has made in all of the games. The section for Fluency Building shows the lessons completed, the level of difficulty, and the last lesson completed how many words they got right and wrong. Under the Story Tutor you will see the level that your child is reading at between 1 and 6 as well as the story number that they are on. It will also include words currently learning and words learned. The last section is the Times Table Tutor. This will show you the times tables 1 - 12 that they have mastered as well as the tests that they have completed. There is also a separate Fluency Builder Report and a Spelling Tutor Report. 

Overall, I really liked the program. I think that it is very user friendly and has great tools for parents to track their child's progress. The games and activities all serve one central purpose, helping your child to succeed in reading. Be sure to read what my Fellow Crew Members had to say about Dyslexia Gold. 

Social Media

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DyslexiaGold