Teaching my children about science is always very challenging and fun for us. I always look for simple ideas that don’t require too many materials as it can quickly become very expensive. We did experiment on coke with mentos, fruit bobbing and corny goo. I am delighted to find out that Science4you has a huge range of activity sets at a reasonable price.
We have received Science4you Creativity Cubes and First Steps in Construction – Pyramids for both my children aged 5 and 6 for review.
Inside the Creativity Cubes, there is a 28-page coloured book providing detailed instructions and scientific information and 12 small lightweight cubes. It is suitable for aged 3+. My first impression was that it look complicated because of the different ways of playing. But after a thorough read without the children disturbing me, I found that this is so much fun to play with children. It can be simple to play and at the same time, complicated to solve the problem. These creativity cubes help to boost your brainpower by teaching you to concentrate, demonstrate good reasoning, motor skills, and creativity.
Both of my children loves this, but Ms C particularly loves to build her own mazes and this is great at training her brain to know what are the next steps or solve problems. The instruction book is cleverly written and easy to follow the step-by-steps. They both find it challenging to find the right block to build or create. Overall this is a fun and challenging game to play with younger children. I love the idea of this game and I would recommend it as it is also great value for money. Mr C did improvise by drawing and cutting a square lined cardboard for the children to place the cube inside the lined cardboard. Also I would have preferred heavier cubes to allow for easier placement.
Next is the First Steps in Construction – Pyramids which is suitable for aged 6+. In this box, there are 3 sets of pyramid blocks, pyramid top, hammer, wood glue, pyramid base, chisel and 36-page coloured book providing detailed instructions and scientific information.
There is so much to learn and read in the book but Mr K was not that interested as it wasn’t very easy for him to understand at the moment. I believe in a year or two, he would be picking up this book to read the details. But at the moment, he is just interested in getting on with it and building his own pyramid!
Before you decide to build the pyramid, it is best to get a table cover as it gets quite messy. Once you take out the blocks, try to break the big blocks by using your hand and then use the hammer and chisel for smaller blocks. Mr K got a bit frustrated as he accidentally broke the bricks. However, they are very easy to fix by sticking them with the wood glue provided. Also he didn’t chisel the side before he built his pyramid as he was too keen to build it!
It took him at least 30 minutes to build 6 levels before he called it a day. It is quite challenging for him as his blocks kept collapsing inwards. I should have told him that he shouldn’t stack them on top of each other. So Mr C explained to him how to build brick walls using Lego, in an offset manner. Soon he understood the concept but it was too late to amend his pyramid. So we let it dry and the next day we built more levels. So this is his pyramid!
Inside the book, it also gives you a few ideas to experiment to help you along to make your own super pyramid, or for creating three dimensions pyramid! Overall this is a very challenging project for Mr K and me. We really enjoyed it and next time I should give him better advice on how to build walls, if I can!
Disclosure: We have received the sample for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own.
These look brilliant – love that they learn but are doing something fun too!
These sound like great sets to really get the mind working.