The holidays have arrived and whilst I am sure there are many parents who relish and delight in the very thought of spending 3 glorious weeks attached to their children at the hip I am sure there are many of us who share the sentiment of dread that encompasses the words of I am hungry every hour and of course mom I am bored I have nothing to do.... can you hear the crickets sounding from the overflowing toy boxes or the computer, the Xbox or Playstation... or heavens forbid from outside you know in nature where there is fresh air to be had and endless imaginative fun lies in wait...
Well I cant do anything to alleviate the wails of endless starvation that our children seem to exude I can help you out by telling you about 4aKid and the new Solar Robotic and Science kits they have just launched on their website.
4aKid is run by the lovely Ally Cohen and her team, it is an award winning company that is passionate about bringing you innovative products for children and babies, making life easier and simpler for parents. The website offers amazing products, tips, recipes as well as competitions and so much more.
I own a few of their products one in particular a seat belt adjuster which we use for Jesse has been a life line for us not only ensuring that Jesse is safely strapped in but also comfortable, there was a point where we really struggled to get him to sit still and comfortably in his seat with no complaint and having this product have turned this around and put our minds at ease when travelling.
Going back to the robotic and science kits though Ally was generous enough to send my boys 2 of the kits to try out after I spied them in their product catalogue a short while ago and whilst we are still busy with the first kit I thought I would just pop in here to share my thoughts or our thoughts thus far.
*Disclaimer*
Before I go any further please note that any thoughts and feed back given and expressed in this piece are my own this is not sponsored I have not been paid to review these products and am under no obligation to provide feedback on these products or anything I may receive or may have received from the company involved, none of my reviews are done without the expression of my own views and thoughts and I will never promote or rave about a product/s on this space or a company if I do not agree with their company ethics or do not feel that the product is worth/ deserving of the positive feedback, if I have an issue with a product or anything involved in the product I will express these views as well.
So I have to say that I didn't specifically choose which kit we received I did want the boys to be surprised and we were sent the Grow -a- Maze kit as well as the Green Rocket kits to try out, when they arrived the boys were so incredibly excited, Loghan actually had to make a bottle rocket for school last year and that was a complete disaster, it flopped terribly I am sorry to say that this momma is just not great with that kind of stuff and the fact that you can actually buy a basic kit to help you out is just a lifesaver as far as I am concerned- go ahead and take my money because it sometimes isn't worth the momma aggravation.
Age wise I would say your child needs to be at the point where they will not put any of the smaller components in their mouths and whilst they don't need to fully comprehend the science behind what they are doing since the activities themselves are just incredibly interactive and fun I would say it helps to be at a point where they can at least participate and not have to just watch you put everything together yourself I want to say ages 5/6 and up although the kit says 8 I would say you know your child and if you feel it is something they would enjoy and you could safely execute with them with your assistance then go for it.
The kit itself contains the basic equipment components needed to conduct the experiment however there are a few things that you need to add in- for the Green Rocket you need to have a bottle and newspaper on hand which for most shouldn't be difficult and for the Grow-a- Maze we had to have beans which I had in the pantry as well as cotton wool which we had in our medical box and soil which we have in the garden.
So we started the grow and maze kit late last week, the kit contained the components to make up the maze as well as to make up the soil and grow containers/ compartments that fit in below the maze, it also contained a dropper for water as well as some blocking cards.
My eldest and my youngest were home and they had a ball, I did have to help with clipping the pieces into the maze but other than that they wrapped their beans up in cotton wool placed them in the compartments below the maze water them and thus far they are starting to sprout much to the delight my my youngest (my eldest is visiting his father for the holidays), we keep a tab on the wetness of the cotton wool and once the beans have fully sprouted and rooted we will add soil and plot their progress as the attempt to navigate their shoots through the maze that we made.
It took a fair amount of time to explain the process and to set it up with the boys and this is something that we are going to follow for sometime, it follows a learning process and is a really fun and interactive way to keep their minds going and off of technology throughout the holiday period, and lets face it if your child needs to do one of these things for a project at school purchasing a kit with all of the basic components (they still get to do the actual experiment themselves) is not something I am going to complain about either, there is a water filter kit that caught my eye because Loghan had to do that exact experiment during the course of this term as well as a few others that we have had to do at school during the course of the past few years as well.
The costs of the kit fall into the range of R120/R140 and I honestly feel that they are worth the price point for the time your child will spend on the activity as well as the learning experience I also like that the kits encourage you to recycle and reuse materials which can be found around the home which can lead to a whole other conversation and lesson surrounding the reduce, reuse, recycle concepts of sustainability.
These kits make up a small part of what the site has to offer there are also some really cool solar robot kits that have just launched, crafting goodies and so much more.
If you would like to see more of what they have to offer I highly recommend popping on over to their Website, Instagram or to their Facebook Page join the community online and I hope that all the kiddos have an amazing holidays and that they all did well during the course of last term, sending all the love and strength to those parents out there who are already tipping over the edge of sanity and to those of you out there who have the ability to cherish every minute I hope you have an amazing time at home with your family.
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