Tag Archives: Science

Science Saturday: Crunchlab’s Turret

January 8, 2026 DanM 1 Comment

My kids found Crunchlabs on youtube and then nextflix, and my son really wanted to get a hack pack subscription for Christmas, so we did.

The first hack pack delivery was the IR Turret and it was a hit!

Crunchlabs Turret

So the kit first kit came and it was this IR Turret that shoots Nerf like arrows (Although I am sure crunchlabs is not allowed anywhere near the name nerf). It said it would take around an hour to make if you were new to building robots. We built it over 2 sessions that added up to about an hour (The kids got distracted and it was good to take a break). Our youngest at 6 was still able to help with some of the build, our oldest at 8 was able to do many of the steps.

A few days after we built it and fired many rockets, Theo wanted to “hack it” so we then went online and followed the video instructions. It was easy to get the software setup and start sending custom code to the turret, we started with the prebuilt stuff and within 30 minutes we were modifying the code ourselves with new customizations. Theo already wants to try to get some new sensors and possibly more motors.

Pros

This is one of the highest quality toy build kits I have had
This has great videos, tutorials, support
The programming and hacking was very cool and fun
The kids have enjoyed playing with this a good deal and are excited for the next kit
They offer 3d printable versions of the pieces and the kids are interested in learning about 3d printing
Dad had always been interested in Arduino’s and now he has written code for one

Cons

one of our motors started to have issues a few hours after use, a few days later it totally broke we had to order a replacement for the up / down motor
expensive
Kids keep leaving it on the floor and I trip over it

Summary

This was a hit and we are looking forward to the next one.

Theo’s Mom Attack

Theo Showing Off His IR Turret

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Windmill Generator

March 23, 2025 DanM Leave a comment

I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities. Recently, we made a windmill generator that powers a light bulb.

Given how much the kids liked the Green Science: Eco Lightbulb I thought this might also be a hit… but it was not.

Kid Approved? No

So what went wrong why wasn’t this as fun…

The light even with a crazy amount of wind isn’t bright
There isn’t really wind indoors and for lights they turn off all the lights in a room to play with something.
It barely will glow if you blow on it
Outside we have to get up really high above our fences to get enough wind to turn the windmill
It keeps blowing the bottle over and falling at about the same amount of wind that will turn the windmill

Basically, building it was fine but they couldn’t find a way to play with it to drive the light in a way that would stay fun. So they lost interest quickly and now we have a plastic windmill piece of trash to throw out at some point when I give up on it.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: KiwiCo Explore Spain

January 11, 2025 DanM Leave a comment

I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities. Over a couple days we explored Spain, in fact we still have some activities left.

KiwiCo travel the world from your home explorers kits

We ended up getting this KiwiCo Explorer kit for free from a camp. It sat around for a while, which might be over their heads. When we finally got it out, both kids were drawn to building the boat, while Sasha was also very drawn to making the cubist art sculpture. I knew we had a hit on our hands from the initial interest.

Spanish Galleon

The kids were both really into making the boat. They eagerly helped and quickly pushed forward the building to completion. They thought it was fun and played with it a good amount after first completing it. The longevity of this as a toy is low, but they really enjoyed the process and had fun with it for longer than I would have guessed (like 15m).

rocking boat 😉

Cubist Sculpture

Sasha, who is more into art, was very drawn to this sculpture and painting project. She needed a little help setting up the sculpture, which her mom lovingly did. She then pained and added all the decorations. She was pleased and proud with the result, which now sits in her room.

This turned out to be more interesting than I would have guessed.

Other Projects

We still have a cooking project from the kit and some reading, but this kit was a hit. A small warning from other parents who do kits like this often. One parent mentioned having a subscription to these, and after a few, they began to dread another arriving as it felt like a chore vs a fun activity with the kids. I get that, and if I had to do a new country every month, I would burn out, but if your kids are interested in some country or you are preparing to visit somewhere, these are great ways to explore and discuss another culture together.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Keva Catapult

January 8, 2025 DanM Leave a comment

Keva: Catapult

This was a kit to make a Catapult… It does make a Catapult, but it is hard and slow for kids to build… I ended up having to build most of the kit. While the kit said 8+, aligning the wood straight to make things work is pretty difficult for a single adult… let alone an adult trying to do this with children… Also, many of the steps require applying glue, which means you have to wait 10+ minutes between steps. The kids really didn’t have the patience for that. While the kid was good, it wasn’t as kid-driven as I like some of these activities to be.

Kid Approved? Yes

Yeah, the kids struggled to get into the building and wait for everything to dry. They thought it was pretty cool and enjoyed playing with it and asking questions. This will also have a longer replay value than many other kits or toys. We shot candy out of it to knock over toys, and you would get to eat the candy after hitting a target.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Eco-Tech Bulb

December 31, 2024 DanM Leave a comment

Green Science: Eco Tech Bulb

This is a hand cranked or gravity powered light bulb. With a water bottle and a pull you can get around 60 seconds of light from the bulb. I know it sounds silly, but after an extended power outage the kids we very interested. After getting this all setup the kids played with it for a shocking amount of time and fight over who gets it in their bedroom. Now often before bed as all the other lights go out the cord on this light is pulled for a last minute of dim light in the room before bed.

Kid Approved? Yes

Honestly, for how simple this was I have been shocked at the staying power of the light with the kids. They enjoy playing with it and asking questions about it. They show it to friends and they enjoyed the project.

While this kit is mostly put together and requires far less build time, it was still a win and I assume will be a science toy sticking around for a number of years in this house.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Salt Powered Robot

August 4, 2024 DanM Leave a comment

A simple kit that the kids could complete

Green Science Salt Powered Robot

This kit allows kids to put together a snap-together robot in Lego-like fashion. It doesn’t take long to put together, and they learn a little about the science of electricity and batteries along the way. It was an OK kit that the kids were able to follow from start to finish, but it didn’t hold their interest long as the final “toy” was too slow and couldn’t really be controlled, so they quickly lost interest,

Kid Approved? Mhhh

I am giving this an OK rating in that it was able to keep them interested long enough to complete everything, but they lost interest fast and had no interest in returning to the robot toy. We built this when our kids were 4 and 6, and it did work well enough for the 4-year-old to follow along, which is nice.

The small robot fits easily in the palm of your hand

In the end, at only $10 this isn’t a bad kit if you haven’t done many like it, but we already built a solar-powered soda can car, which goes much faster and can crash / drive off stairs. So that was a bit better and they have revisited playing with the soda can car much more. If you have already done some other battery / electric kits, this one would be low on my list, but if you haven’t done any others, this one is cheap and simple to do with younger kids… However, they also enjoyed a lemon battery light more than this as well.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Fall Fun

October 22, 2023 DanM Leave a comment

Free Fall Fun

I mostly have posted about various kits we use for science activities, but there are plenty of free/cheap DIY activities to do. I will collect some of the fall favorites here.

hiking
harvesting
pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!
cookie decorating
leaf art
costumes

Pumpkins

There are tons of things to do with with pumpkins and they have been a favorite since the kiddos were babies. A short list of things we do.

painting pumpkins
picking pumpkins from farms, fall fests, etc
baking seasoned pumpkin seeds
carving pumpkins

Pumpkins are a simple and easy activity for easy fall fun, starting at a young age…

Cookie Decorating

Fall is a good time for baking, cookies, gingerbread, and of course all the decorating that comes along with it.

Leaf Art

I remeber doing this as a kid myself and thought it made such pretty art. There are a number of leaf art projects. Erin helped the kids collect leaves and then ironed them between wax paper which creates a beautiful stain glass like leaf art.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Colour Lab Mixer

October 15, 2023 DanM Leave a comment

KidzLabs Colour Lab Mixer

The “colour” very British 😉 This KidzLabs Colour Lab Mixer is a simple kit that mostly lets the kids use easy-to-clean dyes to mix colors. The kit includes 18 projects, but some of them were above my kid’s attention span threshold. We also had the KiwiCo color chemistry set, which other than the Volcano activities didn’t drive as much variety as this kit.

The kit comes with pretty simple materials but has had a good amount of activities, and honestly, young kids enjoy playing with color mixing, so it has gone pretty far. We have stored away the kit and re-used it for different activities or to repeat activities for over a year. Just giving them some tubs and colors and challenging them to make a new color like Orange (mix Yellow and Red) was fun for them.

A recent big hit has been “color fireworks,” which you can probably put together without anything in the kit… We ran out of the dye that comes with the kit long ago and just used food coloring or other kid-safe dyes. You find a jar and fill 90% with water 10% with oil, then put colors into the droppers to add “bubbles of color,” which explode when they sink through the oil and break through to the water.

Kid Approved? Yes

Again, you can do most of these activities without any kit, but the kit gets you started and gives you some good ideas. Then, you have some good bottles, tubes, droppers, and other reusable items.

Replayability: Good

At least from ages 2-6 this has solidly kept their interest each time it is out as we push towards the more complicated activities. So things weren’t hits (ice rainbow, dye flowers didn’t work out well)… Others were big hits, rainbow color mixer, fireworks in water, and watercolor on paper.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Volcanos

August 27, 2023 DanM Leave a comment

Volcanos

While I have some kits, they aren’t necessary, and compared to any other activity, this one is always a hit. My kids would probably do it every day if they were allowed. All their friends enjoy it when we set it up for larger groups. There are endless ways to mix and match to keep the activity fresh and fun. It only requires baking soda and vinegar, which we now purchase in bulk.

Mix It Up

So other than using a few standard kits we have expanded it in many ways. We have added safe dyes to color the lava. We have added a number of containers for making “experiments” and we have a few containers that can keep the pressure and then use it to fire off little nerf rockets. We do the activity outside, by the sink, at the kitchen table, and once in the winter in an empty kiddy pool in the basement. We have had so much fun over the years making little “explosions”

Kits or Skip It

I think a few of the kits have added to the fun as many parts are re-usable, and it comes with some reading to give a bit more learning and the science behind volcanos. Over the years I think I have gotten three kits. I know I got the one’s listed below:

Volcano Lava Lab – This is a good starter kit as it comes with some plastic volcano shapes that can be used for mixing baking soda and vinegar. It also comes with safety goggles, which the kids enjoy playing with… mixers, scoops, droppers, etc… This was a great start, and I just refilled the primary ingredients as needed.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Ultimate Volcano Kit – Erupting Volcano Science Kit – This kit has a lot more reading material and comes with a mold to make plaster volcanos. The kids enjoyed making the volcano with the mold and painting it. So it was also a hit, it also included some dye color refills which was needed.

I like having some of the kits and adding other containers and shapes into the mix. Then I buy vinegar and baking soda from Costco in bulk.

Kid Approved? Yes

I have been doing the volcano kits with kids for years and nearly ever group of our kids friends has had a blast with it.

with cousins, and yes I had to clean lava off the ceiling

Honestly, if you haven’t done this with your kids I can’t recommend it highly enough. Everyone will have fun and it is a good way to re-awaken the kid in yourself.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Steam Kit Planes

August 24, 2023 DanM Leave a comment

Lakeshore Steam Kit Planes

This is a kit from Lakeshore. We haven’t done as many of their kits. Probably in part because this one didn’t go over very well… The Lakeshore Steam Kit Planes were underwhelming. It worked fine, and the kids could build planes (the youngest needing a lot of help)… The real issue is they just didn’t fly well. So we would spend a little bit of time building them, but after maybe 3 throws the kids lost interest. We got a little more time out of them by letting them color and decorate the planes, but in the end, they just couldn’t hold the kid’s interest. I tried again later when they were older and it still wasn’t a hit. In the end, they have honestly played more while making paper air planes.

Kid Approved? No

Sorry, perhaps my kids were to young or they can make paper airplanes that are to good and fly much better… So these just didn’t make the cut. They

Replayability

low, the next time I got the box out to try the kids just groaned…

Kit / Toy Detailed Description

Inside the kit you will find wings, tails, straws, and a guide… If your kids are really into model building and following directions they might enjoy it more… If they just want to build quick planes and have races for who goes the furthest, well these aren’t worth the time, effort or cost.