Traditional Logic I and Traditional Logic II Complete Sets by Memoria Press -- my REVIEW

I have a child who is very deep-thinking.  Many times when he is reading his schoolbooks on various topics he'll stop and just stare off into space, trying to make connections and extensions of what he has read.  He loves debate and seeing things in the bigger picture.  He was very happy to get to use this latest review product, Traditional Logic I Complete Set and Traditional Logic II Complete Set (which he'll use when he is done with Logic I, of course!) which are produced by Memoria Press.



We have used a couple of products by Memoria Press before, and every time I am more and more impressed! 

You might read the titles of these courses and think that they are just for Classical Education systems, but I would like to tell you that is not true! We use quite a mix of materials in our homeschool, and this fits PERFECTLY in for us!

The materials that are included with these complete sets (I and II) are enough to allow you to help your child learn through this curriculum without you knowing everything about logic :) which is great for me!  Included with the sets are DVDs (which contains lectures on each chapter as well as the slides which are used in each chapter lecture), a student text, a student workbook, a teacher key (which contains the answers to the workbook pages, quizzes, and tests), and a quizzes and tests book (really just quizzes over each chapter and then a final exam). 

The workbook gives the student the instructions for each day: the first day is an overview day--the student reads the entire chapter and then answers some questions from the whole chapter.  The subsequent days the student focuses on particular sections of the chapter, looking more in depth at the different parts of the chapter.

Each chapter has its own section on the DVD, which include the author (Cothran) delivering a lecture overview of that particular chapter's contents.  

Same instructor in Logic I

and Logic II! :) 

The student of mine who used these materials was my 16 year old son.  He found that the way that worked best for him to complete each chapter was to do the Overview of the chapter (Day 1) on one day, then he often did days 2 and 3 in one day, Day 4 the next day, the review exercises and the DVD lecture on day 5 (and quiz).  It could be used daily, but that's the way that it fell into his schoolday most weeks!  He really enjoyed using the DVD lecture at the end of the chapter, because then he kind of had a wrap-up and it gave him a way to make sure that he had caught all the important concepts of the chapter. 

So since I just mentioned the concepts, you are probably wondering what kinds of concepts these logic courses cover, right?  If you look on the website or on the back of the textbooks, you will see that Logic I is described as  "an in-depth study of the classic syllogism."  If you're not really in the know as to the logic terminology of "syllogism," I would describe it as deductive reasoning.  Logic I introduces/teaches,  "four kinds of logical statements, the four ways propositions can be opposed, the three ways which they can be equivalent, and the seven rules for the validity of syllogisms" (quoted from their website, because they have said it in nice concise terms!)  It helps students learn these step-by-step methods of looking at different statements, especially when connected with other related statements.

  Logic II  is the companion product to Logic I, following directly after it (and recommended to be used by a student who has completed Logic I already).  Logic II is by the same author and is parallel in form to the Logic I materials.  It goes further than Logic I and incorporates more real-life examples and expands on the format of logic learned in the first course, covering more complex forms of reasoning, extrapolation, different methods of introducing and completing proofs, and more.  Students will learn the terminology of traditional logic and will be able to utliize these different ways of thinking through dilemmas and questions.

He will definitely be completing this second semester Logic (II) as well--he actually enjoys it and we see him utilizing it in his thinking about different things. 

I DEFINITELY recommend this series, Logic I and Logic II.  I appreciate that it is easy for me to teach, without my full background in logic--my student can benefit from the author/lecturer's expertise.  My son has found the chapters in the text to be easy to follow and understand, especially when used with the workbook in the overview/deeper reading/lecture format.  He enjoys the lectures and said that they are pretty interesting (high praise from a 16 year old!) and not dull at all.

Another thing that I like that is on the DVD is the slides that are used in the lecture.  Sometimes things flip past while you are watching and you don't get enough time to fully read them or you want to refer to them later -- the DVD contains these slides for your revew!

So in conclusion, I really like this curriculum.  I am excited that my son will be able to use these tools of logic throughout his other courses, and truthfully--throughout his life!  I am becoming more and more impressed with Memoria Press and thank them for their high quality, easy-to-teach/learn materials that they are producing!

To read other reviews about the logic courses as well as some other courses that Memoria Press offers (such as New American Cursive and Classical Composition) please click on the link below!