{Holiday Gift Guide} The Young Scientists Club Kits Review (& Giveaway Ends 12/1)

ABOUT:

The Young Scientists Club has been engaging boys and girls around the world since 1999.  They offer products that are high quality and science-related, revolving around the wonders of scientific discovery and endeavors.  All of their products are designed by a team of Harvard graduates, scientists, educators and parents with one purpose in mind – to combine fun and fascination with quality and learning in each and every product.  The newest kits, young scientists can go back in time with dinosaurs, go into the future with solar energy, and go out in nature to track animals.

MY THOUGHTS:

I love the idea of science kits for young kids.  I know my boys are so curious right now that when they learn about something exciting you can see it in their faces how happy they are.  I think too it is important to introduce science at an early age to maybe spark some interest and broaden the child’s horizon.  The Young Scientists Club makes it easy to have some science fun too because everything comes in nice little kits! 

Science on a Tracking Expedition

Young Scientists will learn about animal tracking through exciting hands-on science experiments and activities. Identify animal tracks, learn about the animals that make the tracks, cast animal tracks, play the tracking game, create animal track prints, design an animal track poster, and explore real animal tracks in nature. The eight realistic animal footprint molds, large colorful poster, and eighty animal game cards are some of the unique enclosed items that will aspire all Young Scientists to become animal track explorers! (Ages 4 and up)

Retail Price:  $29.99

I think this kit is adorable and there is so much included for the price.  My boys favorite part was the Animal Tracks game (featuring 40 different animals) as they thought it was funny all the different feet patterns the animals have.  The cards not only tell you the animal, but also the Latin name, size and differentiates front and back foot patterns if they are different.  We haven’t done the Animal casts yet but it looks like it will be fun and I love that bowls and a measuring cup are even included!  After the casts are done you can even paint them with the four included paint colors.  Right now my boys are only 2 and 3 so adult supervision is definitely a necessity, but I can see them in a few years really getting into experiments like this.  The kit is also not just a one time thing as you have the Animal Tracks game which can be played over and over again, the posted to look at and the animal casts which seem to be reusable if you purchase more Plaster of Paris.

Some of the other new Young Scientists Kits are:

Magic School Bus Solar Energy to the Rescue • $19.99 • Ages 5+
Ms. Frizzle and her students take Young Scientists on a wild ride with solar energy to the rescue.  Young Scientists explore the greenhouse effect, collect real carbon dioxide, recreate global warming in a bottle, use a solar panel to spin a fan, make a solar secret code, design solar spinners, watch solar energy inflate balloons, and much, much more! 
 
In this kit children will:
 
• Make solar spin art
• Melt polar ice caps
• Learn about the greenhouse effect
• Make a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher
• Make a fan spin
• Store solar energy
• Experiment with working solar panels
• Collect carbon dioxide
• Watch solar energy lift a bead
• Recreate global warming in a bottle
 
Parents will be pleased to learn that this kit is winner of a Parents’ Choice Recommended Seal and a Creative Child Preferred Choice Award.

Animal Tracks • $14.99 • Ages 5+
Here is not one but three traditional games with a science twist!  Match the animals to their tracks while playing concentration, bingo, and guess the tracks games.  This unique game is exciting, fun, and educational as players match cards of photographed animals to their tracks.   Animal Tracks comes with 80 high quality and colorful cards, a plastic storage tray, and detailed instructions for three games. Best of all, it’s a fun series of games for everyone in the home.

The game offers three styles of play:
• Game 1: Concentration
• Game 2:  Bingo
• Game 3: Guess the Tracks

This family-friendly game is the winner of a Creative Child Seal of Excellence Award.

Magic School Bus Back in Time with the Dinosaurs • $19.99 • Ages 5+
On this school bus ride, Ms. Frizzle and her students take Young Scientists back in time with the dinosaurs through these marvelous experiments.  Young Scientists create a timeline, design a diorama, build a wooden dinosaur replica, make cast and mold fossils, mold clay dinosaur teeth, simulate a dino dig, fold 3D dinosaurs, and much, much more!

In this kit children will:
  
• Make a cast fossil
• Make a mold fossil
• Make a trace fossil
• Design a diorama
• Mold clay dinosaur teeth    
• Dig a fossil
• Build a dinosaur model
• Fold 3D dinosaur
• Create a timeline
• Learn about cold-blooded animal
 
Magic School Bus Back in Time with the Dinosaurs won a Creative Child Seal of Excellence in 2010. No word yet on being able to bring back a T-Rex, though we know what Santa’s head elf thinks.

All of the kits include everything you need to complete little activities or play a game – educational but still fun!  I was never a science lover but after reading about this kits I am intrigued and can’t wait for my boys to understand enough to want to make fossil molds, or learn about the planets and solar power.

BUY IT: Visit The Young Scientist Club website to check out the kits and buy them directly or use the Store Finder to find a store in your area that carries The Young Scientists Club kits.

WIN IT: (1) US winner will receive their choice of one of the four new Young Scientist’s Club kits (valued at $14.99 – $29.99)

Kits are:  Science on a Tracking Expedition (Ages 4+), Magic School Bus Solar Energy to the Rescue (Ages 5+), Magic School Bus Back in Time with Dinosaurs (Ages 5+), or Animal Tracks (Ages 5+)

TO ENTER:  Leave a comment on which kit you think your child would like the most!

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Please leave me a comment for EACH entry. This contest ends December 1, 2010. Thanks everyone and good luck! Also, if you just put a generic comment like “I want to Win” then I will have to disqualify you. Once per household please.

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Mama’s Money Savers Disclosure: I received a product to review but my opinions remain my own.  Please see my Disclosure Policy.