Outdoor Science Day Review & Giveaway

Welcome to DAY 5 of my 10,000 Subscribers Celebration! Today we’re going to beat summer boredom with some fun science kits!

I’m excited to be participating in Outdoor Science Day with Scientific Explorer! They contacted me with some great outdoor science projects that were perfect for my kids who got bored with the summer break after about 30 seconds. And, yep, I have a FREE kit to giveaway today to one of you!

We received the following projects in the mail:

• My First Backyard Explorer Kit – perfect for young scientists (ages 4+) who want to explore nature
• Ice Cream Science – take a break from summer’s heat and make your own ice cream – use multiple flavors to create your own recipes (ages 8+)
• Meteor Rocket Kit – make your own rocket, and shoot it into the air (ages 9+)

The Meteor Rocket Kit:

The Meteor Rocket Kit was really exciting for the kids. The only thing I’d caution you on is that even though the box says 9+, it took my dad about an hour and a half to get it all assembled. I’m fairly sure my 8 year old couldn’t have done it.

Flying was successful, but it was a bit tricky to get the rocket set down fast enough so that it shot up in the air. We had a few where the bottom blew out the bottom, but once we got the hang of it, we had some successful launches.

 

The Ice Cream Science Kit:

The next thing we tried was the Ice Cream Science kit. This was fairly easy, and included some other fun ice experiments as well. You do need a few extra supplies such as milk, honey or sugar, and salt.

We carefully mixed our ice cream to satisfy our tastes.

Then we put it in a Ziploc baggie that was placed inside of another large Ziploc bag full of ice and salt. The instructions said to shake well for about 10 minutes. The kids got tired after a few and I finished it off.

When we opened it I was pleasantly surprised to find ice cream had formed in our bags! We excitedly put scoops on everyone’s cones, took some pics, then had at it!

Unfortunately I think some of the salt from our ice bag got into the ice cream because it was a little too salty and we ended up throwing it out! This forced us to go get an ice cream maker and make our own. Much better. I’m all about success when we try something.

My First Backyard Explorer Kit:

Lastly, we did My First Backyard Explorer Kit. The kids have an infatuation with bugs and plants and all things outdoors so this was perfect for us. Actually, they’ve used it several times after and I think out of the 3 projects it was our favorite kit.

We searched for some cool bugs to find, used our nifty tweezers to get them in our viewer and then checked them out.

My daughter found this baby grasshopper, she said it was hard to get, but she was patient and finally got it!

Everyone got a peek at him, then we let him go and looked at some flower petals and other random pieces found in the backyard.

Have you done any outdoor science with your kids lately? Make sure to comment below so we can all share ideas!

For more information visit:

• Scientific Explorer Website
• Scientific Explorer on Twitter
• Scientific Explorer on You Tube
• Virtual Science Fair

Wanna Win a kit?

The nice people at Scientific Explorer are offering a free kit for one of my readers! You can choose from any of the 3 kits above that I reviewed.

Mandatory Entry for Giveaway: {THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!}

• Leave a comment below telling me why you’d love to win a Scientific Explorer kit

Additional Optional Entries:

• Subscribe via email to Confessions of a Homeschooler
• Subscribe via RSS to Confessions
• Follow Confessions on Twitter
• Tweet about this giveaway, feel free to copy the text below:

@ericahomeschool is giving away a FREE Scientific Explorer kit! Enter thru 8/12: /?p=1323

(As always, you can enter if you already follow or subscribe :o) )

Giveaway Nitty Gritty:

• The give away will be open until midnight EST Friday August 12, 2011. Winner will be announced by Sunday August 14, 2011.
• Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry, winner will be chosen at random!
• Please leave a way for me to contact you in your entry otherwise another winner will be chosen.
• NOTE: giveaway is offered to US Residents Only.
• In order to enter the contest you must leave a comment on THIS post. To leave a comment scroll to the bottom of the post and click “Post a comment” (Facebook comments will not count, if you are reading this via RSS, you will need to visit my actual blog to post a comment.)

Disclosure: I was provided me with a 3 free kits to review on my blog. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.