Science Reviews

We just bought this kit (Jan. '06) and they have made some "cost reductions" to this product. First off, the picture on the front of the box shows more than 60 riverrocks, yet there were only 30 in the box ( You really do need 60)!! Next for the paint, there was only 4 colors - red, green, white, and black. There was no brown, blue, or yellow for that matter!! Instead, we found a small yellow note that said " To make brown paint for your landscape, mix small amounts of green and red paint to make various shades of brown." But it didn't work!! Worse then that, there wasn't even enough paint to go around!! I had to add another 5 containers worth just to get a single layer on 1 piece of the set!! For improvements - It would have been nice if they had included some seeds and a small amount of dirt. In conclusion, this kit offered a lot of promise, but instead it only confirmed my suspicpicions that toy tcompanies don't even care about customer satisfaction, all they think about is " How can I make this product cheaper so that I can make more money!"

this is to respond to that one review that was all in caps.
they must have gotten a dud or something because when i got this for x-mas it was great the paints were usable and i think it came with a sponge because your supposto dab the pain on. and if you do that than there is more than enough paint and it turns out exacltly like the box! but i will have to agree when the person said that there worn't enough rocks in the box but come on it is a picture how many things turn out exactly like the box and besides they are ROCKS just walk out side your door and i'll bet there are a bunch of rocks and those are FREE!! i did that and i also went out to like home depot and got a small plant to put insted of rocks because i just like that better and it turned out looking better than on the box. i thought that this was a great gift and it works for a long time and thats why i gave it 5 stars!

I love this craft.The paints were nice and wet and I even had some left over.I was also amazed at how easy the water pump was to make.The craft is now sitting on my shelf.I do have to agree with the fact that is does not have as many rocks as I hoped, so my mom took me to the store to buy more.Another fun idea to make it look fuller but not to have to go search for more rocks is to put some dirt in the sections, so that plants can be grown later on.All other sorts of things can be added to make this a one of a kind display. Overall I think that this is a great craft.I loved making it.

This kit comes with feathers to make quills to write with 9looks like caligraphy when you write), Goldenrod paper to do an experiment from the scene when Harry writes in Tom Riddle's diary and the ink disappears and reappears, plus your standard clear wax crayon and watercolors wax resist experiment and a poster. Highly recommended for lots of fun!!

These Creature Peepers are wonderful!! Our 4-year-old just loves his! Before we had this, he was always bringing his newly-found "friends" into the house. Yuck!! Since buying the Creature Peeper, he still brings his 6 and 8-legged "friends" into the house- but now I am much calmer about it! He loves to catch all sorts of bugs and study them through the magnifying scopes in the top and bottom of this toy. Great fun for curious children!!

The only good thing about this kit is that your child can get some joy out of painting a few volcanoes on a cheap plastic sheet. But the real promise of this kit--to see a model volcano erupt--may not be fulfilled. We followed all the steps and got tripped by a poorly designed base (above mentioned cheap plastic sheet) that is extremely difficult to balance on 4 ill-fitting stilts. A poor experience for the kids. The eruption was more of a fizzle. Waste of money and time.

My goodness, were we ever thrilled with this volcano kit in the beginning. The kit comes with a great poster-sized fold out on volcanoes, giving a graphic of a volcano, info on the different types of volcanoes, and a map of the world with the locations of volcanoes annotated. Very basic, but well done. Also included was a booklet with the instructions and even more information on volcanoes. Yes, by the time you bought this you have already read up on them, but there was a little more information than we had read in our Magic School Bus Inside the Earth or Magic School Bus Voyage to the Volcano (by the way, both pretty good for the under seven crowd).

I didn't think the plastic volcano form was cheap. I mean it IS plastic, but for $13.99, I didn't expect any more. In fact, I thought it was well thought out to make it easy and effectively painted by kids. The directions include painting tips, like using the included sponge to create the look of trees blending with barren areas. There are ridges and crevices in the right places to make it realistic. We thought it was hugely fun to paint and the end result was photoworthy.

Finally, it was time for the eruptions. We did take the advice given in the instructions and super-glued the legs on. Otherwise, they would have never stayed. But the eruptions themselves were pretty much DUDS! The kit says you can expect them to be anywhere from one to six feet high, but ours were nothing like that. Maybe ten inches for a few seconds, then just a constant ooze. I guess that was okay for our first volcanic eruption - Mauna Loa, but not Mt. St. Helens!

We tried some different formulations (more vinegar, adding corn syrup), but it really didn't make much difference. Too bad, because up till then it was a lot of fun.