KiwiCo Crystal Chemistry Garden

This was such a fun STEM activity to do with my kids! It really works and crystals started forming in about 12 hours and it was fully formed after 2 days. My 8 year old son took the lead and did it almost all by himself with my supervision. I love that the instructions are thorough, easy to read, and even include specific instructions to practice with the pipette! It definitely takes a few tries to get it right and I'm glad he had the chance to practice with water instead of the solution. Everything comes in the box, minus a few household items, and it's a perfect afternoon activity with no prep work.The pictures show 1. Set up and what is included (Note: I put everything on a baking tray to keep it organized and so the solution wouldn't accidentally get on the table.) 2. Felt tree, grass and shrub placement 3. The garden after color was added 4. The garden after the blue ammonia solution was added 5. Final product after 48 hours! [EDIT: Pictures are not in the correct order and I’ve tried several times to fix it. The captions should be somewhat self-explanatory with which picture it corresponds to.]One thing to be aware of that I wish they had emphasized in the instructions is that the crystals are VERY fragile (they are not the super hard rock crystals that might come to mind); if you touch them or even bump the surface that it is resting on, some crystals will fall (you can see some crystals have fallen in the last picture), so be careful! Make sure your kids know that, so you can avoid the tears and place your garden in an area with little to no traffic (pets, kids, etc.) - we put it on a higher shelf in our pantry and that worked well.Overall, I was impressed with the quality of the product and with how quickly the garden grew crystals. Your kids will love checking up on it to see what new crystals have formed. It's a great family activity and would be a perfect, unique present for kids.

The value was excellent, and it functioned perfectly! My nephew had a blast! It was easy to use, and turned out beautifully! Fun fun fun for kids!

Bought this a a birthday gift for my Great Grandson. He loves it. (He sometimes lets his dad help if he begs) He loves to learn new things and these kinds of gifts are tailored for him. It's good for him to have supervision while using it though.

It was easy to do and didn't require boiling water and that was nice.Clean up was easy. The tray was nice for holding the trees and bushes. It actually would have been nicer with just a couple less felt pieces so it wasn't so crowded bc my kid wanted to use every single piece.

We are always looking for fun activities that are also educational so we purchased this crystal garden kit. We have purchased from KiwiCo in the past (make a robot kit) and my son really loved it, so we thought we'd give this kit a shot as well.The box is well-organized and comes with very clear instructions. My son (age 11) was able to follow all the steps without any parental-intervention. He enjoyed painting the garden and checking back every few hours to see if the crystals were starting to grow.We are about 72 hours into the experiment now and the crystals are really growing very large now.It's hard to get kids interested in science but I feel like this kit and others from KiwiCo make it possible, so we'll try a few more soon!

Didn't turn out very good at all, was a disappointment

Was very excited to do this kit with my niece and nephew. We did it together on a rainy and cold afternoon. The kit was well packaged and very good instructions which were easy to follow.Unfortunately, no crystals formed after a couple of days. Still no crystals after a week. See picture. My niece and nephew were pretty bummed about the outcome.

Used this for a fun at home night over the holidays. It was Easy to use and clear instructions. The crystals grew right away and are still growing several days later. Very cool! Would highly recommend for kids or adults!