Fun, educational science toys

April 27, 2007 By Elizabeth

I think every new parent thinks that they will NEVER fill their house full of plastic, mass-produced toys that do everything but actually play with your child for you. Fortunately, as children get older, they lose interest in flashing colored lights and pre-recorded snippets of classical music, and start wanting something more interesting to play with. I found a website that sells educational science kits that are fun to play with and will help reinforce what your child is learning in school.

I had my boys look at the website, and they each zeroed right in on their favorite kit. Ryan, who is ten and a half, spotted this Sound Reversing Car that moves forward until the voice-activated microphone detects either physical contact or a sound like a clap. It then moves backward and to the left and starts forward again until it detects the next sound. He and I discussed why it would be fun for him to play with-he says because he could run it into things (!),

Nathan, who is 8, wants me to buy him the Our Amazing Volcanoes kit. After painting and labelling his own volcanoes, he can use a dual-chamber volcano bottle to create up to a 6 FOOT fountain of “lava”! Nathan says it would be fun to watch it erupt, I suggested that it would also teach him about chemical reactions and gravity. He just wants to make a mess with it, of course.

Now that they are older, I’m glad that there are kits like this that are fun as well as educational to give them as gifts. Hey, I just did my shopping for their birthday presents!