I love all the Scientific Explorer science kits but this one was particularly fun. The kit comes with enough stuff to make up to 15 different flavors but you could really make an indefinite number by combining the extracts in any way you want. How about pickle-juice/marshmallow gum? Okay, so that sounds pretty nasty but it might be kind of fun to make. Aside from what comes with the kit, you could really explore the options by digging around in your own pantry or refrigerator.

All that is great fun, but what’s really cool (for us parents) is that kids will learn some of the chemistry behind what goes into making chewing gum. Have you ever wondered who the scientists are that come up with the various flavors of gum? Well this kit isn’t going to answer that for you, but it could make your kid want to become one of those scientists someday. Okay, so this is a pretty cool kit overall. It’s got enough gum-making stuff in it for several rounds of scientific exploring or one big group activity. I can see this being pretty educational (and fun) for a small elementary school class or for homeschooling parents or even for your kid’s birthday party. For around $25 US, the Scientific Explorer Ultimate Gum Kit is a pretty sweet deal.

With this kit, kids get to build a Morse code telegraph, a burglar alarm, and of course the simple radio. The instruction guide is decent and walks kids through all the projects in a fairly straightforward manner. The GeoSafari 10-in-1 Electronic Lab is recommended for ages 9 and up and I agree that that is about right in this case. Much younger and they would need more adult supervision. But on the same note, much older than about 13 and they might find the kit too elementary. For about $20 US, I can recommend this as one of the better valued science toys around.

How can you get one of these free gift certificates?

It’s simple if you have a blog and write about any of the following topics: family life, parenting, children, education, science, toys and anything related to these. Simply write a post and link to their best selling toys page with the anchor text “best selling toys” and any product on the site that interests you. For example, the Uncle Milton Star Theater Planetarium would be a great one. You don’t have to post any pictures but they would like at least a couple of short paragraphs about their products.

Once you write the post, go to their “contact us” page and let them know about the link. They will email you an electronic gift certificate to be used for anything in the store. The denominations of the award will be based primarily on your blog’s page rank and number of readers. Here’s the basic breakdown:

PR0-2: $10

PR3-4: $20

PR5-6: $30

PR7: $50

PR8+: $75

If you have any questions about their offer, you can use their website’s contact form. Give it a shot! You’ve got nothing to lose but a couple of minutes of your time.

If you’re looking for a Halloween-themed chemistry set, this might be the only one out there! And this one is really kind of cool. With the Wild Science Scary Soap science kit, kids will get to create gruesomely lifelike brain-shaped soap. Operate on special castings to make slippery soap eyeballs. Graft soap fingers onto your soap creations to scare everyone — including you! Blend colors and fragrance to make your own signature soap. Experiment in the kitchen to make astonishing new soaps. Your creations will make wonderfully repulsive gifts for friends and relatives, assuming they are willing to wash with such horrific soap. Each kit contains enough material to make several soap projects with plenty left for experimenting.

I love all of the Wild Science chemistry sets and this one was no exception. You can usually find this kit for around $20 US. Of course, my favorite online educational science toy store is Atomic Elephant Toy. While you’re at it, check out their list of the best selling toys of 2008. They offer some great science kits!

I thought I would take a break from reviewing educational toys tonight and take a look at something much more mainstream and popular. I’ve heard a lot about the anime TV series “Bakugan Battle Brawlers” and was wondering what all the fuss is about. The product description says this: “kids 4 and above will enjoy the challenge of earning points by rolling their Bakugan (or shooting them from a launcher) onto magnetic cards where the plastic spheres burst open to reveal the fearsome warrior apparatus inside. Kids will also love the way the Bakugan transform suddenly into warrior mode, and fans of the show will have an especially good time with the game.”

So this particular set retails between $35-$40 US. Not too cheap, but there are certainly a lot more expensive toys out there. More of the description from Amazon follows.

The mission of Bakugan game play is to battle against other Bakugan to win the points awarded on the cards by getting your Bakugan to land on card. Players will love pretending to be one of the various characters in the show, such as the fiery 12-year-old leader “Dan” or the wise “Marucho,” and they gain a deeper understanding of the cards and warriors as they play.

The Battle Pack includes instructions, making it an ideal way for newbies to get started with this fun and exciting game. The game itself is fairly straightforward, but if your child has never played before, you might have to help him or her to understand the rules — after reading and understanding them yourself. While some of the plastic Bakugan pieces are small and could easily get lost, others, like the Bakugan Deka, are as big as a softball.

If your child is already a Bakugan fan, the Battle Pack is a good investment. This set comes with six randomly selected Bakugan and eight magnetic cards. Your child will love how this set dramatically increases their collection of Bakugan! He or she can also use the Battle Pack to play with his friends who might not have any Bakugan of their own.

So yeah, this sounds pretty exciting and interesting. I may have to do a little more research and try it out with my son this holiday season. I’ll bet this will make several lists of the best selling Christmas toys of 2008.

As parents, how many of us have been disappointed shortly after the purchase of a toy for our child that he or she just didn’t seem to get much use out of? There are many ways we can place a value on a particular toy. I’m not talking about the cost, although that typically is a factor when initially choosing a product to buy. I’m talking primarily about what value the toy adds to the child’s life. Many will contend that all play is a valuable part of the growing up process and as such, all toys are valuable. And for the most part, I agree with this theory. But I also contend that some toys provide much more value than others.

Consider this example. You buy your child the latest Hotwheels set or Barbie Doll and he or she plays with it for a few hours over the course of the first week. The lifespan of a valuable toy will last much longer than this, and in fact, your child may continue playing with these toys over the next few weeks or months. But undoubtedly, the cumulative time spent playing with a specific toy will gradually decrease over time. And with some toys this decrease is quicker than others. The best toys may last for years - either directly (the toys themselves) or indirectly (the lessons they teach).

Now compare this example with buying a construction set for your child. The construction set itself may not last much longer than the Hotwheels racetrack. But while playing with it, the child is learning a completely different skill set. He is still using his imagination, but he is also learning cognitive reasoning, deduction, spatial logic and to some extent, the basics of the scientific process. Fast-forward a few months and both toys may be in the bottom of the toy box. But the processes the child learned while building something from his imagination has lived on. In fact, he or she has probably further developed these skills through other play and the general learning process.

Another factor in determining the overall value of a toy is simply by measuring how much play the child gets out of it. A great science kit that doesn’t arouse a child’s curiosity and never gets played with will obviously have less value than a young girl’s doll that gets daily attention.

The best scenario is a toy that teaches something (either short-term or long-term) but also gets a lot of play. A live animal kit such as Uncle Milton’s Planet Frog or the classic Ant Farm will likely provide several months of enjoyment for most children. But think of all the lessons your child can learn with either of these. With the frog kit, the child receives live tadpoles and literally watches them through the biological metamorphic stages from tadpole to adult frog. This is exciting enough in itself, but is an invaluable lesson in how living organisms work. The child will also learn some lessons in responsibility as the tadpoles and frogs will require some (albeit minimal) care to see them through the process. The child can also learn a lesson in compassion and ecology if you help them scout out and find a location to release the adult frogs back to the wild.

Similarly, observing an ant farm will teach your child the value of teamwork, the results one can achieve through perseverance, and simply the entomological aspects of these amazing insects. While kits such as these are a lot of fun themselves, these lessons could help to form the foundation of a lifelong love of learning.

Most of us will agree that as parents, it is our duty to see our children through the growing up process and to help them in any way we can. While doing this, either consciously or subconsciously we are always evaluating them on their progress. And likewise, we are always evaluating what they choose to play with and what we choose to let them play with.

So the next time you’re in the market for the latest toy your child can’t live without, ask yourself one simple question. How much value is this toy going to provide toward my child’s growth? Please don’t misunderstand me and think that I’m on the bandwagon that says the Nintendo and Playstation are the bane to our children’s future. I’m not, and truly feel that in moderation these toys can provide value as well. I’m simply saying that if you can get your child excited about learning to read or about a chemistry set, you’re providing a great service to your child and that you’re helping to lay the foundation for a lifelong love of learning.

Okay, I’ve reviewed a couple of the SmartLab Science Kits before and this one is equally as impressive as the others. This one is officially called their indoor/outdoor microscope and as such, it’s really pretty cool. Basically, it’s like a powerful field magnifying scope that you can carry around observing the surfaces of interesting things outdoors. Or you can put it on its small stand and call it an indoor microscope. As a microscope, it’s okay. It’s got a little power and it comes with a stand and a slide holder and a knob for focusing. But I really liked it as an outdoor field scope.

It magnifies 40 times, which may not sound like much, but you’d be amazed at what a penny or dollar bill looks like at that magnification. Common tree leaves are also interesting, and certainly bugs if you can get them to stay still long enough to focus.

Another great thing about the SmartLab science kits is the instruction books they come with. They are really top notch, and reading the books alone is pretty interesting. Try reading along the book with your kid and he’ll just get more and more excited about going out to play with the microscope. The SmartLab indoor/outdoor microscope comes with the 40x scope, stand, four prepared slides, two blank slides, tweezers, two collection vials and a carrying case.

My recommendation: for under $20, this is a great kit for the future scientist. You can find one wherever the best selling toys or children’s microscopes are sold.

This is one of the better introductory microscopes out there. This one is more of a student microscope than a toy, and its fairly low price makes it one of my favorite children’s microscopes available anywhere. There are two basic types of lab microscopes - compound scopes with bottom illumination and high magnification, and dissecting scopes with only top lighting, lower magnification, but a true three-dimensional view. The My First Lab Duo-Scope microscope combines the two types of microscopes into one and is therefore excellent for classroom or homeschool use.

An actual laboratory instrument made by C&A Scientific, the metal scope features dual lighting so you can view up through a slide at powers up to 400x or down into a solid object at low 40x magnification. Like other First Labs products, the Duo-scope has a professional slant design and real precision-ground optical lenses, which means easy focusing and clear viewing, even for a novice.

This microscope also comes with a simple but nice kit for making your own slides. You will need three AA batteries for the light. This one also made the list of Best Selling Christmas Toys of 2008 from Atomic Elephant Science and Toy Company.

This is one of my favorites from the line of several Dunecraft Terrariums.  With this one you get to grow your own collection of feared and famous meat-eating plants! This kit features the infamous Venus Fly Trap. Watch these fascinating plants grow from harmless seeds into vicious bug-eating monsters. Make your own authentic bog with the included peat planting mix, blue Swamp Rocks, and a companionable Bog Buddy.

Okay, so that’s what the manufacturer’s description of this terrarium says. And it is really cool; I’ll give them that. But what you don’t know when you buy this kit and set out to grow your own “famous meat-eating plants” is that it takes a pretty long time to go from seed to true fly eater. There is a specific procedure to follow which includes, watering or misting, and keeping it in a cool dark place for several weeks. Then putting it in a sunny window, more watering and nurturing, etc, etc. Until finally, they start sprouting and in a few months you have real plants. I do suppose the plants could last for years with the proper care, but this isn’t the kit you want to start with if you want a more instant gratification.

Nevertheless, this is a very cool kit and I can recommend it if you realize just how long it takes to get some really cool plants. It did make one list of the best selling toys of 2008 and I can see why. What kid wouldn’t want to have their very own Venus fly trap?

I love most all of the Ein-O Science Kits and this one is no exception. It would be a great toy for any kid just getting interested in insects and plants. There are several educational activities in this one and this is one of the more fun science kits I’ve reviewed so far. With this one, your kid will get to make their own greenhouse - it comes with a few seeds. Or you can always experiment with your own seeds. I like planting common pinto beans as they are large enough and fast-growing enough for kids to observe in relatively short order. This kit comes with some mini-gardening hand tools, four pots for your plants and even a small little ant farm.

Probably what I like best about this is the great information that comes on the project cards. Of course, I’m an adult and I like the advice this toy gives me in how to teach my kids about nature. For around $30, I can highly recommend the Ein-O Science Nature Explorer Kit. It even made the list of my 12 best selling toys of 2008.