GIFTED | One of the many joys of blogging is when I get to do something blog-related with my daughter. We’ve reviewed some wonderful gardening and nature subscription boxes and a fabulous science subscription box from Letterbox Lab * too. Flora’s nine now and a passionate fan of all things STEM and STEAM. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics). She absolutely loved her first Explore Marvellous Mixtures science box, and she couldn’t wait to get her hands on the more grown up Investigate box * this time. So, what did she think?
Letterbox Lab
Letterbox Lab is a series of 12 linked science kits with full instructions and tools (you just need water for some of the experiments). Online resources and videos accompany every box, plus some suggestions for further experiments and extension activities. The Explore box (for age 6+) and the Investigate box (for age 8+) both support the UK primary school curricula, and one off boxes start at £11.00 including P&P.
Marvellous Mixtures
Marvellous Mixtures is the first in the Investigate box series, containing six different experiments, with a very helpful Messiness star rating at the beginning of each one. The first three activities were repeats of her previous Explore box but she wanted to do them again.
- Incredible Inks – including 3 x felt tips, chromatography paper, petri dish, smarties, 2 x bottles of salt, 2 x dropper tips, scissors
- Rainbow Glasses – glasses frames, scissors, diffraction grating, 8 x glue dots
- Rainbow Spinners – round discs on cardboard, scissors, pencil, spinning top
- Liquid Rainbow – measuring cylinder, safety gloves, 4 x bottles of food colouring, 4 x sugar sachets, 4 x pipettes, paper funnel
- Brilliant Breathless Balloon – clear plastic bottle, 1 x bottle of bicarbonate of soda, 1 x bottle of citric acid, 2 x balloons, safety gloves, safety goggles
- Squirmy Worms – 1 x bottle of sodium alginate, 1 x bottle of calcium lactate, 2 x pipettes, 2 x wooden spoons, safety gloves, safety goggles
- A 24-page instruction booklet, a safety sheet, and an Intrepid Investigator badge.
Incredible Inks
Did you know that different coloured inks are made up of different colours mixed together? Flora drew black, blue and purple lines on some strips of chromatography paper (special paper that can separate mixtures) and then put the end of each strip into some salty water.
As the water travelled up each strip, the colours that make up the original colour began to reveal themselves as separate colours. Based on previous experience, she knew that dark colours produce better results.
Next, she put some fresh water (no salt) in a petri dish along with a brown smartie and waited for all the dye to come off. The dye refused to travel up another strip of chromatography paper, so she elected to eat the remaining smarties 🙂 * update: we put too much water in the dish, we should have only put in a drop or two (too enthusiastic, haha)
The last part of the experiment was her favourite: after drawing on a larger piece of chromatography paper, she dripped salty water on it. Stunning or what?
Rainbow Glasses
After colouring in the frames and sticking on the diffraction grating (prism-like lenses) it was time to look through them. The best effect was when she looked directly at one of our (dimmed) halogen lights, which split up the white light into all different colours of the rainbow.
Rainbow Spinners
After cutting out the three coloured discs and sticking them one by one on top of the spinner, we remembered that cyan, magenta, and yellow mix reflected light to make white. And that some faint coloured rings appeared when spinning the black and white disc. Nothing, in particular, happened with Flora’s purple and blue coloured in disc but she still enjoyed spinning all the tops.
Liquid Rainbow
This chemistry experiment was about making coloured solutions with different amounts of sugar added. In theory, the coloured liquid with the most sugar sits at the bottom of the cylinder and the one with no sugar floats to the top. However, as you can see, it didn’t work in our case. We’re not sure why, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. And also learned that a valuable lesson, that science doesn’t always yield the results you’re expecting…
Brilliant Breathless Balloon
Arthur C Clarke opined that magic is just science that we don’t understand yet but this is the closest thing to magic that does have an explanation. When you combine certain powders with water, they make chemical solutions which when mixed together make a gas. And the gas blew up the balloon! “Oh, wow, this is AWESOME!” Honestly, the squeals of resultant excitement could have powered several cups of tea (and I’m just talking about me)
Squirmy Worms
The last experiment in our box explored atoms, molecules and alginate chains. Certain molecules can hold other molecules together when mixed together, forming gloopy, (strictly non-edible) gummy worms. Flora decided they looked like snails’ eggs (it’s true, they do, and we’ve recently had to scrub her aquarium to remove hundreds of the wretched things). She also thought it would have been fun to mix some food colouring with the sodium alginate mixture, to create more visible worms. One to remember for next time 🙂
Final thoughts
Like last time, Flora absolutely loved her Marvellous Mixtures box, and our favourites were the Balloon and Worms activities. She’s naturally curious, so even when things didn’t go to plan (Liquid Rainbow), she was happy to ask why rather than get upset. As Albert Einstein said, “The important thing is to never stop questioning.” I think the idea of science through the letterbox is a genius concept. And I particularly love that everything you need for all the activities is included in each box, with the exception of water, the catalyst for some of the experiments.
We carried out the Investigate Marvellous Mixtures activities over the course of three afternoons after school. It took a few days as Flora wanted to repeat some of the experiments because she had so much fun 🙂 Huge thank you again to Letterbox Lab for our first Investigate box. Flora learned so much, I remembered so much more, and we can’t wait to see what’s in our next box now!
What do you think of this box? Do you know any children (or big kids) who’d love to make some squirmy worms too?
* This review features a gifted box but all opinions are our own.
Such an amazing box! I’d love to get this box and I’m not even a kid haha! This is definitely a great gift idea for children, I’m definitely going to note this brand. Great review x
http://new-lune.com
Thank you, we had so much fun with this, I don’t think it’s just for kids, haha, I learned a lot as well! x
Seems like such a wonderful box! 💜
With love, Alisha Valerie x | http://www.alishavalerie.com
It’s amazing, so much to do and enjoy!
So glad Flora loved this box! I think I would too – it sounds so interesting! I love how interested Flora is in stuff, she’s amazing!
Jenny
http://www.jennyinneverland.com
Aw, thank you, Jenny, we think so too but then we are biased! And yes, the box is fascinating, we learned loads 🙂 x
Lol first off the box comes in my fave color so I can imagine how excited it’d be as a kid when this arrives 😂 the gummy worms sound pretty cool lol at adding the coloring. Flora def is a creative gal and she always looks like she’s having super duper fun with her boxes. Glad it can be educational and fun 🤗💕
xx Lena
I think the thing she was most excited about was the safety goggles, proper scientist stuff, haha. Yes, we’re very lucky, this box is absolutely perfect for her, combining science and art in one! x
This looks like a really great box (i’d Probably envoy it myself) my sister is around the same age as Flora so she would also definitely really enjoy this, anything the creative or messy she loves! Going to be saving this for later x
Aw, yay, I’m sure your sister would love this box too, it’s so well thought out and with so much to do. Learning can be fun, haha! x
I love the sound of this box – there’s nothing cooler than seeing a curious and creative child working things out. I love that Flora is so into STE(A)M things, she sounds like such a bright and interested child which is awesome! Such a lovely way for you both to spend time together too.
Beth x
Yessss, you’re right, watching them trying things out is so lovely. And it was fabulous to spend a few hours together on something that taught us both without an electronic device in sight, haha 🙂 x
This box looks amazing! I can’t wait to be able to do this sort of activity when Emi-Marie is old enough. Thanks for sharing.
Hannah – HannahSarah.com
Kids today are spoilt for choice, haha, I so wish boxes like this had been around when I was growing up! 🙂
I’m always so glad to see kits like these that encourage our kids with fun science experiments. One of my nieces is really interested in science. Being a scientist myself, it’s great fun for me to pick out birthday and Christmas presents for her. Thanks for the great review on this one!
Oh, I didn’t know you were a scientist, Joan? Wow, no wonder you appreciated this box then! And yes, you’re right, these boxes are such a brilliant way of getting children interested in learning in a fun way 🙂
This is such a great concept to get children involved and learning about science. It’s great that Flora is into all those areas, scientist in the making maybe. The packaging is so cute!! Getting creative and learning is a great way to entertain children instead of TV and phones etc. My little sister and my nephew would enjoy this box I think. Thank you so much for sharing your review Lisa xxx
It really is, isn’t it? And yes, Flora has ambitions to be a marine biologist, engineer, and scientist so these boxes are brilliant for her. It’s so lovely to see her enjoy something that’s not electronic-device based too 🙂 xxx
I love that there are so many things like this for kids now! I remember doing chromatography in school and loving seeing all of the pretty colours! This all sounds really interesting, even for adults! I always love getting to see the things Flora has been sent 😂 x
Sophie
http://www.glowsteady.co.uk
Oh, I loved chromatography at school too, it was so fascinating to see the colours separating and merging again. And I enjoyed it even more this time too, Flora was so excited, haha! x
This seems like a lot of fun and so many activities from just one box. You know it’s a success when they want to try them again because they enjoyed it so much the first time. I love that Flora is so inquisitive that she asks why things didn’t work, rather than getting upset or frustrated. She’s shaping up to be such a smart young lady!
I’m amazed at what good value these boxes are and how much she loves them. And yes, I was very impressed that she was curious rather than cross about why things didn’t work out first time around, she’s got an old head on her shoulders 🙂 xx
What a wonderful kit!
It really is 🙂
This sounds like such a great box Lisa. I’d love it myself and I’m not even a kid lol!
Haha, I know what you mean, I’m lucky I can justify it for Flora!!!
These look great, look alot of fun not just for the kids but adults too, thanks for sharing, my eldest step daughter loves science experiments.
They are so much fun, and not just for kids either, well worth a go!