The Critical Thinking Child Reviews 43

I was researching test prep programs and came across The Critical Thinking Child. I began researching the program and talking to other moms that were in search of something like this as well. I am SO GRATEFUL for the instructional design and care Ms. Lemi and her staff poured into my daughter who is very soft spoken and suffers with anxiety at a young age. We went weekly and I immediately began seeing a boost in her knowledge base and her confidence. I would highly recommend to any parent that wants their child to get that extra boost. My daughter tested for a selected enrollment test and received amazing scores and a seat at our 1st choice school.

Just a quick note to say thank you for the great support and ongoing
help! I must say that your gifted and classical assessment reports are
truly concise and easy to understand. Not only were the results
beneficial but they really helped my wife and I think things through so
we can focus on the right stuff for our son.

Been going to Lemi on and off for 5 plus years now and her services do not disappoint. Our son has taken book camp classes, private tutoring sessions, and most recently reading tutoring sessions at the Critical Thinking Child. Our son has learned a great deal when it comes to those important and essential skills that are overlooked in public education curriculum and standards. We definitely feel that he has benefitted from the overall experiences he has had with The Critical Thinking Child and will continue to rely on their services to address the areas of his educational experience that fall short of giving him the
maximum opportunity to be academically successful.

We had a wonderful experience at our assessment with Lemi! I feel so much clearer on exactly what skills my daughter already has, what she can work on and how we can work together to target those areas. My child really enjoyed the whole thing and told me she is looking forward to more.

Our daughter attended the summer boot camp for critical thinking. It was a great experience for our daughter, who looked forward to going to the class each week.

For us, the most important factor was for her to enjoy the learning process and that is exactly what Lemi provided her with.

Lemi brings in years of research on child development and is able to apply that in the classroom. Lemi has a unique way to engaging the kids along with driving discipline and focus.

Furthermore, we received excellent advise from Lemi on multiple topics - ranging from use of technology to encouraging reading.

I recommend the boot camp and other programs that Lemi leads to all parents.

The process of teaching critical skills is impressive, the facilitators have found a way to challenge the kids while having fun doing it. We are very glad with results we have seen over the years.

Enjoyed the Online workshop:
Love the spatial relationship puzzles. I plan to add more spatial relationship activities to my classroom. Your workshop reaffirmed many of my beliefs for K-2.

I put my son here because critical thinking to me is an important life skill. Unfortunately, not all schools focus on critical thinking skills. I also pay attention to my son's brain development.

I read neuroscience books in my free time to help understand myself and my children. Decision making involves different areas of the brain. I choose enrichment programs for my son that I feel will develop these parts of the brain that will influence him to make important decisions as an adult.

I am happy to be in Chicago because of this organization. I have recommended the online version to my friends in other states. The Critical Thinking Child is truly a Chicago gem so I tell everyone about it.

The Critical Thinking Child program did absolute wonders for my daughter. She came into the program extremely shy. Ms. Lemi and her team worked with her and tailored a program that allowed her to blossom. The games and assessments pushed her to heights that surprised me. She was able to get into a Classical program on her first try. I recommend the books, games, puzzles, and the academic boot camps. Two thumbs up.

We love Boot Camp! We are so appreciative for the tools and guidance that Lemi and her teachers provided our family. We had the motivation to work with our daughter, but without a road map we didn't know where to start or what to focus on. The experience of Boot Camp classes gave our daughter the chance to get comfortable working with and taking instruction from other adults, while the tools and materials provided made it fun and easy for us to reinforce everything at home. Beyond being prepared for testing for Kindergarten (which Boot Camp helped with on multiple levels!), our daughter and our whole family have benefited from this program with strategies for critical thinking, problem solving, and learning basic skills.

Ms. Lemi is a great teacher and we have wonderful experience working with her.

My kid was assessed below average in pre-reading skills in PreK school. As a 5-years old she was struggling with the alphabet like mixing up with B and D; L and J; and couldn't memorize some lower case letters. We suspected she was dyslexic and started looking for a tutor.

One day my husband saw an interview on CNN that a four-year-old from Chicago, challenged himself and his parents to read 100 books in one day and he succeeded. It mentioned that the boy was once in Ms. Lemi's reading program. We were amazed by that boy's reading skills and contacted Ms. Lemi.

After 4 sessions of 1x1 tutoring with Ms. Lemi, I was thrilled with the progress that my daughter made. I sat through the sessions and enjoyed watching her teaching how visual/spatial thinking and patterns are linked to language. Most important my kid loved learning with her and felt empowered that she could read.

After taking tutoring class we kept contact with Ms. Lemi. She went above and beyond to answer questions, provide practical tips and advice. In CPS test she scored 94 % in reading and was offered a seat in a selective enrollment school. The progress that my daughter made in 5 months is remarkable and she could not have achieved it without the help from Ms. Lemi.

I highly recommend CTC's reading progrm and am so grateful for the support she has offered to my family!

The criticalthinkingchild.com offers excellent programs for preparing kids for success in school, including for success in applying to the highly competitive Selective Enrollment Schools (both Classical and Gifted) of the Chicago Public School (CPS) system.

Ms. Lemi-Ola Erinkitola has perfected these programs over more than a decade. She is a pleasure to watch in how she adapts her teaching style according to the level and progress of each child. Based on experience with my child, I highly recommend Ms. Lemi’s reading classes, as well as her Critical Thinking Bootcamp, either in the summer or in the fall. The reading classes helped my child get up to speed on reading, which is one of the important skills tested for on the CPS classical exam, while the bootcamp helps to understand the details of what is on both the gifted and classical tests, and lays the foundation for success on both tests.

As a result, my child scored 99% on Math, 99% on Reading, and 98% on the Gifted tests, and was accepted at one of the very top CPS classical schools, also ranked among the very top elementary schools in Illinois.

I highly recommend Ms. Lemi-Ola Erinkitola and the criticalthinkingchild.com, both for preparing for the highly competitive CPS selective enrollment exams, and for developing the skills of your child for success in school.

Lemi and everyone at Critical Thinking Child have been great! Not only did our child end up getting into the school we were hoping for, she now has some incredible critical thinking skills she can use throughout her academic career and life in general. We're very grateful for all of the help, insight, guidance, and care we received from this phenomenal team.

idk why …..……………….

Lemi and her staff take a personal approach to every child and his/her needs. It is so rare these days to have people so invested in the learning process and focused on each child's success and the approaches to get there. She is SO creative with approaches and makes it a fun experience. My son grew tremendously with her help and gained strides in his focus and critical thinking approach to different topics and tasks. The classes are worth every dollar!!!

The Critical Thinking Child helped to prepare my child to take selected enrollment tests and offered strategic instruction for building confidence in facing future challenging assignments.

Keep Up the Great Work!

The positive progress my son is experiencing is Awesome. My son is defiantly learning and gaining more confidence each session which is very important to me. The techniques he is learning helps him tremendously in completing his school work. I love the progress and look forward to the sessions that brings him closer to our goal. Thank you Team.

"Very nice and very professional. You can tell that she really care about the kids learning new skills and following up on their progress.

I am thrilled with the reading enrichment that my child has been provided. I am definitely seeing improvement in her decoding skills, reading fluency and confidence overall in her reading skills.

I saw a presentation by Ms. Erinkitola (the Founder of The Critical Thinking Child) at the 2019 Illinois Association of Gifted Children Conference. She was so engaging and informative. The resources presented were so easy to implement the very next day. She really understands Visual/Spatial Thinkers and how to cultivate their gifts.