Learning Resources Primary Science Lab Set

This science set was lots of fun for my daycare kiddos. All of the instruments are just the right size for them to hold and manipulate and see through. They fight over the goggles, which are nicely designed for younger kids, durable and comfortable to wear. The surprise hit of the show was the dropper, which really is great for sucking up liquids and squirting them back out again. :) We actually already had a Learning Resources magnifying glass, and while there are many things the kids love about it - the size and weight and the little stand appeal -- unfortunately we haven't found ours (either of them) to work well. You can't really see anything through them. It's not a high-quality lens, at all. (It does stand up to two toddler boys using it as a baseball bat, though. But we couldn't see through it even prior to that, um, incident.) There is a nice set of ten laminated cards with experiments on them, but I'm honestly not sure how much value they add to the set. For one thing, the experiments are so simple (mixing food coloring, putting raisins in soda, dropping insects into the test tubes to observe them, growing plants in the test tube, mixing baking soda and vinegar to make a volcano, mixing colored water and vegetable oil) that you don't really need the cards to be able to perform them, and once you've done the experiments once, the cards are a little obsolete. We did most of the interesting experiments in a single afternoon, although the kids are all happy to repeat them and make up their own whenever I take out the large plastic tub where I've stored the kit and assorted supplies (food coloring, raisins, a can of soda, a bottle of vinegar, a box of baking soda - you will want some of this stuff on hand when the kit arrives.) Definitely a fun introduction to science.