This Spring we were invited by Bright Minds to review the Butterfly Garden from Insect Lore. This is a complete kit which contains everything you need to raise your own butterflies - including a voucher to send away for live caterpillars when you are ready to begin. 

Because you raise real live animals, you can only use the kit in Spring and early Summer - which is when the butterflies (Painted Ladies) hatch.

We've been sent the IDo3D Ultra 2 Pen Funky Pets Set for review - this is a 3D modelling pen which sets the 'ink' under the enclosed UV light in less than 1 minute.
Suitable for age 8+, it's a very affordable introduction to thinking and creating in 3D - you can even draw vertically, straight up into the air... 

Inside the I Do 3D Activity Set are 2 x pens in green and yellow, with screw on twist close nibs. There is a 3 bulb UV light which actually clips over the pen to 'light up as you draw', 1 x themed mould/tracing sheet, 1 x plain non-stick drawing sheet and an instruction sheet.

Don't miss the little press-out tool - it is really handy for scraping and shaping the wet ink. 

We've always been a family that enjoys science, and once the kids get a bit older, Science Mad! caters for the more mature junior scientist, taking things up a notch and using equipment like real glass, fire and chemicals, and language that they'll hear in secondary school.

We've been sent the Chemistry Lab and Planetarium Star Globe for review, and I have a UK giveaway for one of my personal favourites - the Crystal Growing Lab. 

The Science Mad! Chemistry Lab is not a new addition to our house, we actually bought this exact set ourselves a couple of years ago. It's great to see the manufacturer has swapped out the plastic insert for cardboard - nice one.

The set is suitable for age 10+ and it contains a real spirit burner, which runs on methylated spirit. It's illegal to include it in the set, so you will have to get it separately - but you can buy methylated spirits cheaply all over the place (supermarkets, homeware or decorating shops, including Wilkos). It has a million uses, although we tend to use more pleasant-smelling products to clean things nowadays. All you'll need beyond this are commonplace items like vinegar, salt and turmeric. 

A lot of online vendors have had to close shop for a while, and obviously we don't have instore shopping right now, but The Essential One are still open for business online. They sell all kinds of products for babies and children, and have sent us two of the toys for bigger kids from the Discovery Mindblown STEM range.

I've already covered the Toy Anatomy 4D Shark. Age 6+ and here is the Discovery Mindblown Toy DIY Robotic Arm with Hydraulics. Age 10+.


We've never created anything using hydraulics before, so this was an entirely new concept for my 11 and 10 year old boys. We also have our 22 year old engineering student here, so he helped. This is a 176 piece kit, and it's a challenge to a young engineer.


The parts are mainly on sprue, and you'll do a better job if you use scissors or snips. You'll need your own basic tools, but they are things you'd tend to have at home - scissors, tape, ruler, screwdriver etc.

While a lot of online vendors have had to close shop for a while, The Essential One are still open for business and have a lot to offer, even if your children are a bit older. They have sent us two of the toys for bigger kids from the Discovery Mindblown STEM range. This is The Discovery Toy Anatomy 4D Shark. Age 6+


My son was ecstatic to see this. He loves sharks and anatomy, and so it is perfect for him. There is a big plastic insert in the box, and we aren't going to keep ours - this is a shelf model my son wants to display.


Inside the box are all the parts of your shark, and be careful not to miss any because a couple are very small. There are 20 parts in all, and they are really well decorated and nicely shaped from rubbery plastic. It is really nicely made.

The Science Mad Chemistry Lab is a proper Chemistry set designed for children who are ready to move on from volcanoes and start looking deeper into why their world works as it does. Trends UK have sent us this set to review with my 11 year old, and my 9 1/2 year old joined in with some extra close supervision...


We are a household who love science and my boys have grown up experimenting. I'll start by saying this is an awesome Chemistry set. The price is brilliant for the kit included and the experiments are genuinely age 10+ and incredibly exciting for my boys. Here's why we think that...


Inside the cardboard box is a plastic insert holding all of your equipment. There are over 20 pieces of equipment, including several made from real glass - the spirit burner, stirring rod, a glass tube, 2 test tubes, beaker and conical flask - so we've opted to keep ours in the box between use for safety.

I love Learning Resources toys. They introduce younger children to all kinds of skills that they'll use for their lifetime, while playing with some of the best toys around. I'm delighted that they are giving one of my readers a Beaker Creatures Alien Experiment Lab as a Christmas present.

Recommended for children aged around 5-9, the Alien Experiment Lab includes over 20 different experiments for your young scientists to try...


There are 18 pieces in your set, including a Slime Station and Slime Extruder, Creature Mold and Pod Maker. There are also 2 collectible little Beaker Creatures Aliens hidden inside Reactor Pods. There is loads to excite any youngster.

We recently reviewed the So MAGIC DIY Wonder Magic Garden for Canal Toys and now they've sent us the So Slime DIY Slimelicious Station for review. Suitable for age 6+, this is a scented-slime making kit with enough ingredients and decorations to make 16 little pots of imitation ice cream slime...


Everything is housed in a sturdy box, which can easily be used for storage if you don't make all of your slimes at once. It's an exciting parcel to open.


Included in the kit are a lot of parts, which are easy to distinguish:
Slime Station
4 Mini shakers
Scented Slime powder
2 Tools
Stickers
3 Tubes of colour
Instructions
6 bags of decorations
3 decorative straws

I really like OKIDO. My boys have enjoyed their magazines for many years and now they are branching out with a range of kits and games. We've been sent the OKIDO Which Way? Coding Board Game to review. Everything OKIDO do brings together creativity with science, making it not only rewarding and fun, but educational and really accessible to all children - whatever their ability or gender.

Which Way? Coding Board Game is a bit young for my own children, so I enlisted help from some of the children who play in my garden all Summer, but they don't appear in the photos or video.


I'm really impressed right from the start. This is a game which teaches young children to think 'like a coder' and prepares them for genuine computer programming and use. The design is simple genius, a line-following robot car with a magnetic board and track pieces, which are designed to replicate blocks of computer code.

We've really enjoyed being Bandai STEM Ambassadors over the last 6 months, and the final tasks they've sent have been perfect for the Summer holidays. We've been sent National Geographic Gemstone and Shark Tooth Dig Kits and Ultimate Play Sand - a miniature sand pit with 2kg of colourful sand that never dries out and comes complete with 4 mini sand moulds...


The Bandai National Geographic STEM Kits are complete kits for children aged around 8+, and they contain everything you need, including tools. Each kit contains a Learning Guide, which is a short booklet full of images and information about the items you'll discover in the kit. They're brilliant, concise and always teach me something new.


The Dig Kits come complete with a double ended excavation tool, small brush, magnifying glass, instructions and a learning guide.


Dig Kits are packaged in a cardboard box, with a cardboard tray insert which can be used as a work surface. They keep all of the mess fairly well contained and can be recycled after use. Your fossils and gems are hidden in a decorative plaster block.


The Gemstone Dig Kit contains 3 real gemstones - Tiger's Eye, Quartz and Amethyst - and they're very pretty. They're also nicely varied, so children can tell instantly which is which. Once excavated you can clean them off by rinsing under water (put the plug in first), and then they catch the light really well. Or, as in our case, you can proudly show off just how carefully you exposed them!


The Shark Tooth Dig Kit contains 3 real fossilised shark teeth - Crow Shark, Otodus Shark and Sand Tiger. There's a fascination in our house with exceedingly long-lived animal species, so it's particularly interesting to us that although our Sand Tiger Shark tooth might be 100,000,000,000 years old (one hundred million), Sand Tiger Sharks still exist today.


My boys are 9 1/2 and almost 11, so I've been really pleasantly surprised at the amount of use the Ultimate Play Sand has received. This is a really neat little sandbox kit which works very well to keep everything tidy and safe.


The tray in the Ultimate Play Sand kit is plastic, but it is also your miniature sandbox, so it's definitely not single-use. Also included are 2lbs of play sand which never dries out, never makes dust and leaves your hands clean, plus 6 clever little sand 'castle' moulds.


These aren't just any old sandcastle, the moulds are actually 6 historical buildings, something my older boys really latched on to. All week ancient civilisations have been battling it out in my living room...


The sand is kinetic sand. Brightly coloured and fascinating to watch trickle out of your hand, it only sticks to the other sand. Very easy to scoop or sweep up and shouldn't ruin your carpet. It's actually quite mesmerising and incredibly relaxing to play with - whatever your age...










No entries are mandatory, but each action performed earns you extra entries into the random draw. The giveaway will end at midnight Sunday 29th September, full terms and conditions are at the bottom of the Gleam form. For a link to help if Gleam is new to you, or to see my other UK giveaways, see my Giveaways Page...

National Geographic Gemstone Dig Kit Giveaway (age 8+)

This month Bandai have sent us three of the Mini Dig Kits from National Geographic for review. Smaller than the standard Dig Kits, each contains one genuine specimen which your child can dig out using the tool included.


The Mini Dig Kits are hard plastic-wrapped, so not very eco-friendly. With scissors they're much more easily opened, but can have sharp edges, so watch your fingers. Inside is your specimen and a digging tool, as well as a leaflet with information.


I may not be so keen on the packaging, but I love the contents and so do children. Dig Kits offer a surprise reward - you don't know what you'll end up with exactly, and no two end results are the same.

We've all made volcanoes before and they're a real crowd-pleasing, reliable experiment which is easy, safe and dramatic and teaches children a lot. This month Bandai have sent us the Build Your Own Volcano Kit to review and it's hands down my favourite home volcano science kit.


Inside the box is everything you'll need in generous quantities, and it's all in a cardboard tray which pulls out and can be used as a work surface to keep everything neat. I love the National Geographic STEM Kits for this.


You are given plaster of Paris and a 3-part mould to create your own volcano. There is masses of plaster and we propped the plastic mould up in the shaping of the box to hold it still while we filled it and it set hard.

This month Bandai have sent us two more of their STEM educational kits for review. The National Geographic Green Crystal Growing Lab (age 8+) and the Sea Monkeys Ocean Zoo (age 6+).


National Geographic Green Crystal Growing Lab (age 8+) allows you to grow a glow-in-the-dark pale green crystal. You are supplied with everything you need except water and a suitable container, and it's a really easy kit to get started.


In the pack are growing powder, a seed rock, stirring stick, real Fluorite crystal, magnifying glass and a learning guide with the instructions. Packaged entirely in cardboard and the pull out cardboard tray is super handy for containing any mess while you work.

I like science toys best of all and I'm delighted that my boys love them too. Thames and Kosmos have a huge range of science, mind and exploration toys, games and puzzles. Their brand new MBE range of science kits includes 8 different sets designed to allow your child to explore their world and learn something new and exciting, and at only £8.99 each, they make a great birthday gift for friends.

The new kits are designed to introduce different scientific topics, with fun facts and interesting hands-on experiments, and Thames and Kosmos have sent us 2 to review - Amazing Minerals and Crystal Geode.


The Amazing Minerals Experiment Kit is a nicely presented digging kit with 2 tools, magnifying glass and the familiar chunk of plaster containing the hidden treasure.

National Geographic make a huge range of STEM sets which allow your child to explore, create and discover something amazing about the natural world. Crystal growing, archaeology digs, sharks teeth, bugs, stones and my favourite - geodes. There's so much out there for us to discover and learn about. I'm proud to announce we've been chosen as Bandai STEM Ambassadors for the next few months and for our first job they've sent us the National Geographic Real Bug Dig Kit and the Dino Fossil Dig Kit for review.


Any regular readers will probably be well aware that I'm no stranger to the National Geographic STEM activity sets. I love them and so do all of my family. I can't tell you how many of these sets we've bought and completed over the years with all of our children, but it's easily 50. They're a brilliant tool to get kids thinking about their world from a different angle, and they teach us all so much.

I've got a really exciting toy giveaway today, and sadly it won't arrive in time for a Christmas, but it will make an excellent new year's gift for someone.

Now, you can relive the joy of lying under a van in a car park in the pouring rain at 10pm, but from the warmth and comfort of your own lounge and age 10+. Haynes are making model engines...


I haven't had the pleasure of playing with the Haynes kits yet, but at £36.99 for an Internal Combustion Engine and £54.99rrp for an over 250 piece, fully functional motorised Petrol V8 with its own mini Haynes Manual, it's got to be a fair price.

We had a great time exploring at The Digital Kids Show last weekend and one of the most exciting things we found in the STEM Zone was The Curiosity Box. I've heard of their boxes before and been impressed at the quality and range of activities at very fair prices. It was lovely to meet the people behind the project and bring home a box for my boys to try out themselves.


The Curiosity Box have a massive range of different Science and Engineering Boxes for children aged 7-11, and a new CuriosiTots Box for younger children aged 4-6. We were given a Jumbo Curiosity Box: Atomic for children aged 7-11. My 10 year old was ecstatic!

Secret Science: The Amazing World Beyond Your Eyes is a new release from Scholastic Books. Written by Stand-up Comedian, Mathematician and Scientist Dara O'Briain, it's like taking a foray through his head as he goes about his every day life, and if you know him from TV like I do, you'll read it entirely in his voice.


Subtitled The Amazing World Beyond Your Eyes, in this book we don't see the world as we would normally, we are shown the science behind everything we take for granted, from sleeping to flying to building sandcastle, and it is fascinating.

Simple Science is full of interesting illustrations by Dan Bramhall and they work perfectly. The whole package is incredibly funny and witty, with plenty of dry humour, but this is also an intelligent book.