Science in a Box for Kids

Details:  Groovy Lab in a Box is a subscription service, great for children ages 8 and up.  It focuses on young STEM scientists giving them fun, hands on projects with engineering design challenges.  Each box comes with a Lab Notebook where they read and learn and experiment about the month's theme/ topic.  Groovy Lab Box teaches or rather helps reinforce investigating, brainstorming, planning, building, testing, and redesigning scientific projects.  Going with the STEMist box program your young scientists gain access to our online learning program Beyond in a Box.  Which gives deeper more detailed ideas, suggestions and fun online learning opportunities for each month's theme/ topic.  Topics change each month!

Disclaimer:  I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

My Review: As a home school teacher of a very active, creative, soon to be Second Grader, I am always looking for fun, creative, thinking out side the box ideas for him to learn science topics and skills.  When I first heard about Groovy Box I just knew this would be a really big hit with my soon to be 8 year old.  I love that you get all the supplies you need within that box.  I love that these are simple, fun, and easy projects that your kids can do, with adult supervision of course, but they can easily be done.  When I first opened the box I was a little over whelmed, I haven't done anything scientific since graduating college a decade ago.  But was pleasantly relieved that I could understand what needed to be done, and how to help my son achieve the results we were hoping for with the experiments.  Our first experiment we did from Groovy box, I chose, so we did the sun paper experiment.  I let both my 7 year old and 4 year old choose the objects that sat on top of the sun paper, so they chose Fisher Price Trio Blocks.  My 7 year old carefully put the paper in the sunlight and helped us keep track of time (it needed to be in the sun for 2-5 minutes).  Then I also let him remove the objects and paper from the sun and finish the rest of the steps by himself.  That was a super easy project.  What he learned is that even though we tried to get away from shadows we couldn't 100%, but that the shadows were just as cool as the image from his toys.

For the second experiment he chose the battery/ electricity experiment.  We needed to strip wires with our finger nails, tape them to a 9 Volt battery, and get them to buzz, then go around the house to see what else conducts electricity, including a plastic bowl of water.  It was really fun to test, but he did not want to write down his discoveries.  Since these 2 experiments weren't actual parts of school, I didn't mind him choosing not to write down everything the Lab book prompts you do, but come school I would actually make him finish his experiment.  Regarding the second experiment my 4 year old wanted to help and enjoy, but quickly found it boring and too much for his little mind and ended up going back to playing with his toys.  From this I can easily see how these projects are for children 8 and older.  Do I wish they had projects preschoolers and kindergartners can do?  Yes, absolutely, but you know what, that's okay I have pinterest for those projects.

Over all I'm very pleased with this product, I can easily see myself getting a year supply of subscriptions so each month my 2nd Grader has fun excited science experiments that Mommy didn't create on the whim.  I highly recommend this company and their STEMist products!

Pros: fun, exciting, creative, great for age appropriate children

Cons: you don't always get to choose what goes in the box

Contest: want a chance to test this product out for yourself?  Check out our facebook page for the details.

My Rating: Thumbs UP