IQ SIX PRO ~ A Timberdoodle Review

If you enjoy puzzles

get ready to have fun!

With 120 challenges IQ Six Pro is a cognitive skill building brain game. IQ Six Pro is part of   Timberdoodle's Ninth-Grade Curriculum Kit. This puzzle game helps to develop your child's visual-spatial skills through logical building steps. The recommended age for IQ Six Pro is 8 and up. The price on the Timberdoodle site is $11.99. 

The set includes:

1. a two sided puzzle board 
2. 12 colorful, hexagonal puzzle pieces
3. 1 puzzle booklet with 120 challenges with solutions

IQ Six Pro is fairly small and fit in the palm of my hand. The product dimensions are 5.71 x 3.94 x 1.14 inches. It is a great game for home, on the go, traveling, and sharing with friends. 

The IQ Six Pro has 120 puzzles to solve. There are 36 2D puzzles on the black board, 36 2D puzzles on the butterfly board, and 48 3D pyramid puzzles. The solutions for all of the puzzles are included in the booklet. There are 5 levels of difficulty: Starter, Junior, Expert, Master, and Wizard. 

 

This is the 2D butterfly board. There are 36 puzzles to solve on the butterfly board. 

The black board is for 2D puzzles as well as for building the 3D pyramid puzzles. You can see the shape of the pyramid in the center of the board. 

My 19-year-old sat and worked through many of the various puzzles and was fairly good at them. She did not want to tackle the pyramid levels. 

My mother is always excited when I get a new game to review. She loves games. She sat and worked through several of the beginning levels of the 2D puzzles. She commented that grandpa would really like this game. I need to send it home with her so that he can play with it. He fractured his back about two weeks ago and this would be a great way to pass some time. 

Look at my mother's concentration. 

My father-in-law loves puzzles. When they came to town I handed him this game. I explained what to do and he did one of the puzzles and then handed it back. He was not too sure about it. About 5 minutes later he asked for the IQ Six Pro back. He then sat and worked through more puzzles. He said the game kind of grows on you. My father-in-law is in his 70's. 

This is the outer, outside board of the IQ Six Pro. After completing each puzzle you are left with a beautiful, colorful butterfly. 

Isn't the finished butterfly puzzle beautiful?

My 14 year old worked through puzzles in all of the various challenges. She liked the butterfly board the best. She gave up on the 3D pyramid puzzle challenges. She is not one to sit and really take time to figure something out if it takes too long. 

I am trying hard to build this pyramid.

Okay, not quite a full pyramid but I am proud my attempt.

I worked through some of the 2D puzzles and was determined to solve the pyramid puzzles. It took me a long time to figure out how to place the pieces based on the instructions. Once I figured the first one out I felt a bit more confident. That was until the puzzles introduced blank spaces. You have to figure out the pieces that go in those places. The pyramids are 6 layers high. Pieces can be placed horizontally or at an angle. A piece many only take up one layer of the pyramid or several layers. There is only one solution for each puzzle. 

Pyramid SUCCESS!

My 22 year old was determined to solve the pyramid levels. She said that after figuring out the strategy of successfully building the first one the subsequent ones were easier. Of course the greatest challenge in building the pyramids as you move up in levels is the blank spaces that you have to figure out for yourself. 

The only drawback of the game is that when you are finished playing you cannot just place the pieces any which way and close the lid. You have to place the pieces strategically in order for them to all fit. I simply go the the Starter Level, Number 1 which is fairly easy to solve. 

My daughter is a part-time nanny. The 10-year-old boy loves to read, play games, and do quiet activities. My daughter brought IQ Six Pro over to let the him try it out. He immediately got hooked. My daughter texted me after he had been playing for an 1 1/2 hours and said that he didn't want to stop to do another activity. He was even able to tackle the pyramids! He told my daughter that he wanted to get the game. She sent me the following pictures. I called my daughter and she had me on speaker. I told the him that he could keep the game until tomorrow and he was so excited. 

This is 1 1/2 hours into playing and still going strong! 

IQ Six Pro is a great game for the whole family. Whether you are purchasing it for entertainment or as part of your child's curriculum you will not regret the purchase. We have several Smart Games® brand puzzle games from Timberdoodle and my family has loved all of them. Beat the summer heat and give your child a great way to build their problem solving, logic, and concentration skills while still having fun. If you are a homeschooler or are thinking about homeschooling check out all that Timberdoodle has to offer. IQ Six Pro is part of Timberdoodle's Ninth-Grade Curriculum Kit. Timberdoodle has kits available for Newborn through 12th grade. 

The Critical Thinking Co. ™

Disclaimer:  I received this complimentary product through the 

Homeschool Review Crew.

The Critical Thinking Co.™ offers over two hundred books and software in reading, writing, math, science, social studies, critical thinking, as well as test prep. Supplemental workbooks as well as full curriculum options are available for students in Preschool through the 12th grade. Over the past weeks Building Thinking Skills® Level 2 -Grades 4-6 (Ages 9-12). The Building Thinking Skills Series® is the #1 selling Thinking Skills Program in the World! There are 412 pages and 10 chapters in the Level 2 workbook. Critical thinking skills are essential in all subjects as students progress to middle and high school. Level 2 first presents activities in semi-concrete figural-spatial form and then in abstract verbal form. This workbook is considered a full Curriculum. 

The 10 Chapters in Building Thinking Skills® Level 2 (Color) include:

1. Describing Shapes
2. Figural Similarities and Differences 
3. Figural Sequences
4. Figural Classifications
5. Figural Analogies
6. Describing Things
7. Verbal Similarities and Differences
8. Verbal Sequences
9. Verbal Classifications
10. Verbal Analogies

In every exercise students must use critical thinking skills in order to complete what is asked. The wide variety of activities requires students to think through problems from many angles. For example, in Chapter 1 students are shown a shape on a grid and are told that each dot is 1/2" to the next dot. They are to then estimate the square inches of the shape. In Chapter 2 students are shown a half shape on a grid and then are asked to draw and color each shape as it will look when unfolded. In Chapter 5 students are asked to draw a figure to complete each analogy using a dot grid. In Chapter 8 students are given a grid and are asked to follow a set of directions. 

Some of the Level 2 skills that your student will learn are:

Figural-Spatial Skills

• Describing Shapes
• Describing, Enlarging, Reducing, Copying Shapes
• Stacking, Rotating, Folding, Symmetry
• Classifying, Identifying, Organizing
• Analogies and Diagrams

Verbal Skills

• Reading Maps
• True/False, If/Then, Yes/No, Compare/Contrast
• Directions, Orientation
• Writing Descriptions
• Sequencing 
• Analogies: Create, Explain, Association, Type

Here are a few examples of activities. 

Estimating Area

Tumbling (Rotating) Figures

Paper Folding

Complete Figural Analogies

Which Figure Does Not Match?

Describing Solids

Building Thinking Skills® Level 2 would be a great summer enrichment activity workbook to help your child develop necessary critical thinking skills. Maybe your are looking ahead to the upcoming school year for a full curriculum in Critical Thinking. The skills learned are will help students in their reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and standardized tests. This 10 chapter workbook with a full answer key in the back of the book has your covered. My Fellow Crew Members have reviewed many The Critical Thinking Co.™ materials both supplemental and full Curriculum. Be sure to check out all of the reviews that range from Pre-K through grade 9. I would highly recommend Building Thinking Skills® Level 2 for grades 4-6. I would add that younger students working through the workbook may become frustrated with the activities and may need some help. I would also add that as a homeschool parent you may find Level 2 is a great fit for your child outside of the suggested grade range. The Critical Thinking Co.™offers sample page of the Level 2 workbook. You can also browse their site to look at the many levels of the Building Thinking Skills® to find the perfect fit for your child. 

Doctor Livingston Jr. 100 Piece Human Body Floor Puzzle

What better way to get your child excited about learning basic human anatomy than putting together a 4 foot tall puzzle. With the Doctor Livingston Jr. Human Body Floor Puzzle you child will get detailed, accurate cross-cut of the entire human body. From the cranium to the phalanges your child will see how bones connect at joints, muscles connect with tendons, arteries, veins, and nerves weave throughout the body, and how each organ fits perfectly in its given space. The human body is truly miraculous. This puzzle is part of  Timberdoodle's 2022 First-Grade Curriculum Kit.

Doctor Livingston Jr. Human Body Floor Puzzle was awarded in the Top 12 in Timberdoodle's Awards for 2021. 

When you open the box you will find the puzzle pieces in a bag. Included in the box is a double sided, laminated Anatomy Reference Guide. The box has a piece of velcro for extra secure closure. 

The front side of the card labeled, The Human Body, labels common parts of the body such as eyes, teeth, brain, and the foot. There are some probably some newer body parts that your child may not be familiar with such as the clavicle, quadriceps muscle, maxilla bone, and the tarsal bones.

On the flip side of the Anatomy Reference Guide is The Human Body Fun Facts. Did you know this about your arm, "When you hit your 'funny bone,' you've smashed a nerve in your elbow against your upper arm bone, which is called the humerus, How humorous!" 

Planning it out. At only 100 pieces this by far is definitely not as challenging as the Dr. Livingston's Anatomy Jigsaw Puzzles ~ Set of 7 that we reviewed back in 2021. That set is geared for the high school age student while this Dr. Livingston Jr. Human Body Floor Puzzle is part of the 1st grade curriculum set. 

The puzzle pieces are fairly large and are thick. They are made for smaller hands to grasp and manipulate as your child finds each interlocking piece placement.  

On the back of the box your child can see what the completed human body figure is supposed to look like once it is completed. 

For the kinesthetic learner this puzzle would be a great hands-on learning activity. If your child tends to have a short attention span or gets too fidgety you can easily put the puzzle together in short spurts.

The box says that the puzzle is four feet in length. My daughter got out our tape measure to see how accurate it was. She thought it looked way too small to be four feet. 

Give or take an inch or so it was very close to the 4 foot mark. I didn't look to see if she had the bottom of the tape measure at the lowest point of the bottom of the completed puzzle so we will call it 4 feet. For most kiddos in early to mid elementary this anatomically correct puzzle will be close to their size. How cool is that! 

The following pictures are close-ups of each section of the completed puzzle. As you can see the detail is fantastic. Your child will get an inside look into the human body without the gory and gross pictures often found in books or the less detailed textbook diagrams. 

Isn't the detail amazing! This puzzle would be a great lead into a unit study or a lap book project on human anatomy. Your child has a wonderful view of the intricate organs, bones, veins, muscles, and so much more that make up their bodies. Even if after completing the puzzle turns into a great discussion time about how different parts of the body work gives your child a deeper understanding of the many parts that have to work together to make their bodies work. 

Here is the completed Dr. Livingston Jr. Human Body Floor Puzzle. The picture truly does not do the puzzle justice. Whether you are purchasing this puzzle as part of the Timberdoodle 2022 First-Grade Curriculum Kit, are looking for a fun resource to add into your current curriculum, or want to provide your child with a fun summer enrichment. 

Be sure to check out the Dr. Livingston Jr. Human Body Floor Puzzle!

100 pieces, 4' tall

I would highly recommend this puzzle. It is a great learning tool for early elementary and up and also fun! If you have older children as well you may want to check out the more complex Dr. Livingston's Anatomy Jigsaw Puzzles ~ Set of 7 for the high school level student. This set is very challenging. The link is to the review that I wrote for the Set of 7.