For our 5th "sneak peek", I'll share our exciting plans for a one-semester elective credit that we will be including in the World Geography guide.
This elective credit will not be related to the history/geography part of the guide, so it will be located on the right side of the plans. It will be a semester credit (half credit) done all throughout the year in short daily sessions.
The credit will be in logic and will include The Fallacy Detective and the Art of Argument. We have used both resources with our oldest son and really enjoyed them. Together they complement each other very well and make a very solid semester credit in Logic.
Here is the publisher's description of The Fallacy Detective:
In our experience, most children learn logic best when they are thirteen years or older. Therefore, we have designed this book for students age thirteen and above. We know that logic is a new subject to most people, so we wrote this book to be your teacher. We designed the lesson format to contain many concrete examples, and we included exercises for many levels of difficulty. In this way, the concepts are easy to understand, and the skills are easy to learn. Actually, we like to think of it this way – our book helps you to discover the logic which is already written in your mind by God. We only make you more aware of the logic which you’ve been using all of your life.
What Is the Lesson Format?
Each lesson begins with a section for you to read, and ends with exercises for you to answer. An answer key is provided in the back of the book. Learn to recognize the fallacies you see every day, including Red Herring, Ad Hominem, Tu Quoque, Straw Man, loaded question, equivocation, circular reasoning, either-or, generalization, analogy, propaganda, and others, (including two new for this 2009 edition: special pleading and slippery slope fallacies). Original cartoons, as well as Dilbert, Calvin & Hobbes, and Peanuts, illustrate many of the fallacies perfectly.
Sample from the Fallacy Detective:
http://www.fallacydetective.com/downloa ... lesson.pdf
Here is the publisher's description of the Art of Argument:
Young teens are targeted by advertisers with a vengeance. From billboards to commercials to a walk down the mall, fallacious arguments are everywhere you look. The Art of Argument was designed to teach the argumentative adolescent how to reason with clarity, relevance and purpose at a time when he has a penchant for the "why" and "how". It is designed to equip and sharpen young minds as they live, play, and grow in this highly commercial culture. This course teaches students to recognize and identify twenty-eight informal fallacies, and the eye-catching text includes over sixty slick and clever, “phony advertisements” for items from blue jeans to pick-up trucks, which apply the fallacies to a myriad of real life situations.
This text comes in a workbook format with clear explanations and many updated illustrations and examples to insure understanding and mastery. The text aims at the practical application of the informal fallacies through an analysis of current social, commercial and political issues, which are discussed and evaluated. This practical application should insure that students continue to evaluate arguments, detect fallacies and reason well long after the course is completed.
Students master 28 fallacies (such as begging the question, the straw man, ad hominen, et al) by studying many pertinent examples. The text features a variety of:
Dialogues
Worksheets
Real-World Applications
Phony Advertisements
Dialectic Discussion Questions
Tests
The Art of Argument has been revised to include:
Improved chapter and unit organization for greater ease of use
Fallacy explanations rewritten for clarity
Many added and updated examples
Ten new and revised advertisement illustrations
Link to sample pages from the student text of Art of Argument:
http://www.classicalacademicpress.com/i ... sample.pdfLink to samples pages from the teacher's edition of Art of Argument:
http://www.classicalacademicpress.com/i ... sample.pdf
We are so excited about this pairing and know your kiddos will learn so much from these courses. Plus, these selected resources make the study of logic entertaining and enjoyable.
Even more importantly though, both of these resources come from Christian publishers, so you can feel good about the content. We are so glad to have these included in the upcoming HOD guide! 
Blessings,
Carrie
And DH had better as well! I am really excited about this as I already own The Fallacy Detective but never figured when was a good time to use it. Now I know when that good time will be. Getting more and more excited for this guide every day!
