I love toys that are great fun but also highly educational and the two kits (this one and a Shampoo Lab one that I just reviewed here) sent through from SentoSphere, a French company, certainly fit the bill.
As soon as you take the lid off the box, you find a treasure trove of intriguing and slightly bizarre looking objects that you can't wait to get your hands on. And that's just the grown-ups ! You have all the material you need to carry out 24 fascinating experiments that will help you to discover the magic of light and its power over colours and images.
Even as an adult, I didn't know the answers to all of the questions asked on the website : Why is the sky blue and the sunset orange ? How can you use the sun's energy ? Why are colours on screen not the same as colours on paper ? How can you create a rainbow or a kaleidoscope ? How can you communicate with your friends with fibre optics ? Well, you'll find out by doing the experiments in the box. As a parent but also teacher, I think it's great that you can share the learning experience with your kids, discovering things together and learning new facts at the same time as them.
The list of contents is impressive : 1 solar panel- 1 turntable - diodes- 1 kaleidoscope to build yourself - 1 mirage box (mirascope) - 1 optical fibre - 1 pair of 3D glasses - 4 coloured inks - 1 pipette- 1 paintbrush - 1 mirror - 10 optical illusions - 1 illustrated booklet.
The experiments are easy to do and clever enough that Sophie wanted to do them again to show everyone. It was great to see her thinking about things she'd just taken for granted (like a blue sky) and actually learning while having fun. It's a great way to while away a wet Sunday afternoon and would make a great find under the tree on Christmas morning.
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : about £25 (€30)
Other reviews you may be interested in :
Dear Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteI recently traveled to Brussels, Belgium and bough this great toy to my 8 year old boy. The package had basic information in several languages, including English. However, when we opened it at home, the booklet with instructions was only in French. None of us speaks French so we can't play with it :(. And my son was overwhemled and so happy with the toy when he saw it, since we have no similar toys in Croatia (where we live) and he loves science.
Please let me know if it is possible to scan the English version of instructions or maybe you know if it is even possible to download from web?
We would be enormously grateful.
Sincerely,
Marta Raljevic
We have the French version unfortunately - I'll ask the person who sent us the kit and get back to you if they can help.
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