Thames & Kosmos Crystal Growing Science Kit Grow Over A Dozen Crystals with 15 Experiments, Includes Storage Case & 32 Page Color Laboratory Manual

I bought this for my son for Christmas. He loves rocks and gems and I thought "creating" some would definitely be a great idea. What I was not prepared for was the amount of time each experiment took. If you have time (days) to put into this and a child with the patience to go through it, this is worth the purchase!My son and I went through some of the experiments, and he loved every minute of it. The formations it makes are really astounding, and it ends in hours/days of excitement for the child. From day 1, my son was wanting to create, and he and I worked on the things we made together.Again, make sure you have time that you'll be able to set aside if you purchase this for someone. It is worth the time spent.

I bought this for my daughter and I to do together, which we proceeded to do over the course of about 6 months. All of the experiments are simple and fun. It took us a couple of tries at first to get crystals to form (use distilled water! save yourself the trouble), but once we got the hang of it, it was fun. We ended up with several nice pieces and loads of good memories. If I have any complaints, it's that nothing we made looked quite as nice as the box art, but I guess that's par for the course. It was certainly worth our time and our money, and I would 100% recommend this for kids who like experiments (although you'll almost certainly need to help, esp. at first). Also, this set requires patience, as most of the experiments span several days of prep and crystal formation. I would suggest for ages 8+.

This kit is a very comprehensive introduction to growing crystals. I guided my 9 year old through the series of experiments and she and I learned a lot together. She ended up with a nice selection of crystals to keep and admire. I found some typos that can be pretty confusing but apply common sense and you'll be okay. Like it calls for 10-cm of yarn but the units are wrong and it should have been inches. It calls for a shadow pan but it should have said shallow pan. The methods are designed to use minimal equipment but if you read ahead and understand the point of the experiment you can substitute with better stuff. For example, use a long ice tea spoon to stir the solution instead of the wooden popsicle sticks provided and use a lidded dutch oven with hot water for the slow-cool method rather than wrapping the jar in a towel. You can also make your own plaster forms if you have candy moulds on hand instead of the lightening bolt and dolphin they provided because it's just plaster of paris. You can repeat the methods using other crystals around the house like epsom salt, table salt, and borax. Once you've learned the techniques from the kit you can try your own experiments.

Purchased this kit for my 7 year old daughter. So far we have done four of the 15 experiments and my daughter has been able to complete all the experiments with guidance. The kit itself is put together really well and includes everything you need to make your own crystals. The guide book also breaks down each exercise and explains what is going on (at a kids level) and is easy to understand. For the money, this is a great kit and my children love it and the cool crystals that have formed so far !

Great set! Many hours of fun for me and my 7 y/o son who absolutely loves it. He is too young to do much of this himself but loves watching me and listening to my explanations of what is happening. You do need to have basic understanding of chemistry to be successful in some of these experiments. Crystal growing is not an exact science. The instruction book that comes with the set is pretty good and we did just fine following it.

This kit has not had very good outcomes so far. It could be the operator, but my alum packets don't completely dissolve even when measured exactly, the crystals are small, so finding a "large" crystal for one of the experiments is near to impossible. The picture in the directions shows the crystal being at least 6x bigger than our largest. We tried the experiment with our largest seed crystal and I went back to check on it and it had fallen out of the string that it had to be tied on for the project. We started the plaster shaped crystal kit today so we will see how it goes. Hopefully a little more sturdy and I hope the geode works well. Might be worth the kit if we actually end up with something tangible other than frustration.

This is a Pre-Christmas review designed to show the quality of packaging, whether the items come complete and undamaged and what, if any, extra items might be needed for it to function. After Christmas I'll update this review with more details and photos in use.This came pretty well packaged and in good condition with no missing items.You will need quite a few extra items to do some of the experiments. Most are easy to find but I still deducted a star since it's a large amount.Extra Items Needed:Distilled WaterAdhesive Labels, Pencil, Transparent TapeThermometerPaper Towels, Pot Holders, Old Cooking PotElectric Hot Plate or StoveSome Empty Jelly or Honey Jars With LidsYarn or Nylon StringScissors, Old NewspapersEmpty Yogurt ContainersSmall PebblesSandpaper, Cloth HandkerchiefKnife, Rubber Band

fast shipped. it is a really cool project. it does take a few weeks to do any of the experiments and it is a pretty long process that definitely needs adult help but it is so cool to look in the jars after a few days and see the crystal grow. the kids love it. they always ask "can I look at the crystals"?. a really creative gift.