Kids, Clutter and Chaos: magic school bus exploring the wonders of nature review

*I was not paid for this post but provided with a Magic School Bus Kit for the purpose of review and my honest opinion. The following is my thoughts and review....

I love watching my kids learn and have fun at the same time. I try to set up activities and projects for them but don't always have the supplies or the organization to make it all come together. I'm happy there are companies like The Young Scientists Club who go above and beyond creating the best learning tools and products for young children.

The Young Scientists Club started as a summer science camp for the founder's 5 year old son and was such a hit with friends that a subscription service was born. The Young Scientists Club believes that children should be exposed to the fascinating fields of science at an early age and learn with hands-on games, activities and experiments. Awarded top prestigious awards year after year this "club" is sure to be a hit with any child.

Although The Young Scientists Club is a subscription service they also offer science kits and games online and at specialty retail stores. With big names you will recognize and that are surely to grab your children's attention like The Magic School Bus and Clifford The Big Red Dog. We had the opportunity to review The Magic School Bus Explore the Wonders of Nature Kit.

Explore the Wonders of Nature is jam packed full of activities to get your child excited about nature and the outdoors. It is designed for ages 5 and up but Little Brother had a wonderful time participating with his Big Brother at 2.5. A great value at just $19.99 you get 12 activities or projects with everything included that you need to complete the projects. Each project has detailed directions in a fun Magic School Bus learning style guide with pictures and colors that make it fun and interesting for kids.

Included Projects:
• Make a bug house
• Nature Scavenger Hunt
• Create a paper maché ant
• Learn about the life cycle of an ant
• Build an ant farm
• Sun Prints
• Leaf Art
• Dry Flowers
• Cast an animal track
• Animal tracks game
• Egg Experiment
• Dissolve an egg shell

We camp a lot and are outdoors any chance we get so this kit was perfect for our family. It was so much fun to see the boys get excited about the kit and eager to do the projects. We took our kit camping and built our ant farm. With ant hills all over camping this was the perfect opportunity for the boys to observe the ants, however they were just as excited to go hunting for the ant hills.

I think their very favorite was the nature scavenger hunt. We did this in our own front and back yard and I was surprised at how many items on the list we could find in our small area. There were just a few that we weren't able to find. The boys were running all over the yard and knew just where certain items would be and others that we really had to hunt for. Item's such as seeds and pollen were great learning opportunities for me as they see these things but we don't necessarily talk about them. It was a great tool to get the ideas started.

Casting the animal track was also great fun. They now have a bear print treasure and it was just as much fun mixing the plaster of paris and getting messy as it was to get the final product.

We also all really loved the Animal Track Game. Trying to match up the many different animals to the tracks was really hard and really interesting. Also to see which animals are similar and how to tell the difference.

Explore the Wonders of Nature is just one of many kits offered by The Young Scientists Club. Offered at just $19.99-$39.99 others in The Magic School Bus Series are the Weather Lab, Slime and Polymer Lab, Blasting off with Erupting Volcanoes and more. The Clifford Series is for ages 3 and up and offers kits like Bubble Science, Rainbow Science and Kitchen Science. I can't wait to purchase some other kits for the boys. They are such a great idea for learning and keeping the boys busy and engaged.

WIN IT:

How would you like the chance to introduce your child to the wonder's of science? Enter now for the chance to win an Explore the Wonder's of Nature kit or your choice of the following science kits from either The Magic School Bus or Clifford The Big Red Dog Series listed below!