I recently discovered a eBook for Kindle that teaches middle grade kids the basics of logic. This is the story of a girl on a debate team who hides in a broom closet at school and is visited by a couple of small imps (Athena and Fuzz) who take her back to their Kingdom in order to help their King. The young girl, Nikki, goes through a series of adventures. In each chapter she teaches the standard logical fallacies to the people of this strange Kingdom.
Last night we read about the ‘Appeal to Authority’. Of course the lesson devolved into a discussion by my two kiddos about who has the “better” cat. They decided to hold a couple of debates later this year and to ready themselves they started trying out the fallacies as they learn them. This is great fun, but also will enable them to avoid using faulty logic and recognize when someone is trying to pull the wool over their eyes.
Throughout the book, the author of the story weaves a series of subplots that teach scientific method including when you can identify and eliminate outliers from your data set. It is pretty sophisticated stuff wrapped up in an entertaining fantasy plot about a kid having an adventure in another world. Absolutely perfect for a precocious ten year old or even 40-something year old homeschool moms.
The cherry on the top is that the ebook: Logic to the Rescue by Kris Langman is free on Amazon.
A perfect introduction to a study of logic for the middle years kid.
