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Most of these things you can buy from the store for nearly nothing. I thought this was a little too expensive for the kit. The kids had fun with it but for cotton swabs, string and a couple of grow creatures you can buy at walmart 2 for a dollar it just wasn't worth the money. It had some magic sand and some dye tablets, test tubes etc. I would not recommend.
I bought this kit for my 6 year old grandson & he loved it. His Mom said they worked on it together & had a lot of fun while learning about various scientific principles appropriate for his age. I would recommend it.
It also doesn't follow next steps, like - how can we get the water out of the expanded crystals (to show dehydration and water/heat reactions). Plus, like a lot of nerdy fathers, I have difficulty getting excited about tossing the ball around or painting pictures. So even though it's not `scientific' per se, it is a lot of fun for my oldest. However, I wouldn't necessarily call it a `science-kit', it is more of a `magic-kit' that is very accurately targeted at bright 5 year olds and older kids.
The kit takes the first-step towards some very-basic scientific principles, particularly practice in measuring volume, buoyancy, and simple acid/base reactions. Much of the kit is focused on water-absorptive materials, but the instructions don't help the parent to explain what is happening. My son got a kick of of seeing why counting to 100 (ml) is a useful skill. This kit is fun, well put together, and the projects are laid out in serial order, which is nice when you only have a little bit of time to sit down.
For example, why do polyacrylamide crystals soak up so much water, and where does it go (a chance to explain cohesion and show surface tension). But science, even at the most basic, reminds me of that first microscope or potato battery I was so fascinated with as a child.
So I can compare this kit to a lot of other brands and say that this one is one of the best I have seen. The rainbow wand looks really cool, even my three teens were impressed with it. They give really detailed directions and every experiment worked. We buy science kits like other people buy food. You do need baking soda and vinegar, but that is it.
It had everything you need included (there is no need to buy any weird supposed "common household items" to do the experiments). My seven year-old son is obsessed with science. We had bought martian sand from another company and I had no idea how to get the water out of the cup without sending the sand down the drain.Having priced many of the items in this kit individually, I feel it was a really good deal.I do agree with the other reviewer that it would be nice if they included more than one piece of goldenrod paper. And I do consider those to be true common household items. I also like that they tell you things like how to clean up the sand.
My 7 yr old chose this and we have had fun working with it. I wish it came with more than one sheet of coloring changing paper, but other than that, I'm satisfied. It should be priced a bit lower.
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