Has anyone here used these kits before? Reading some reviews on Amazon, I'm concerned they may be too basic for my nearly-8yo DS. OTOH, we are still deschooling, so they might be a fun way to ease our way into homeschooling. I was thinking of getting a subscription, so we'd get a science surprise each month.

Thoughts?

I think they'd be okay for an 8 year old. We have several we have used with DS5 but for us there has been a lot of parent involvement in setting up the kit activities. Maybe an 8 year old could do more of it independently.

No experience, but they're 50% off through the Homeschool Buyers Co-Op. But perhaps that's why you're checking them out....

Exactly. I had never heard of them before yesterday.

I prefer The Young Scientist Club kits from the same company. They seem to offer more in the packages and might be a better fit age-wise.

A lot depends on LOG and interest level-- my DD found MSB most appropriate (in general) at 4-7yo. We never used the kits, but did use the books, video, and computer software to supplement unit studies of our own.

By age 8, she was mostly aged out of it.

I just found the booklet for the bacteria and fungi kit.

It contains ten experiments. Here are some examples:

Who has the cleanest toes? Involves a Petri dish with agar and cotton swabs

Does soap really work? Involves a Petri dish with agar, soap and water

How does yeast make bread fluffy? Involves yeast, test tube, warm water, sugar, balloon and test tube stand

It walks the kids through question, hypothesis, materials needed, methods, results and conclusions.

Further exploration of topics is on their website and they welcome e-mails with questions, comments and results.

Thanks everyone! DS still enjoys reading the MSB books occasionally, although he's mostly beyond them in what he wants to know (about the subjects he's really interested in, anyway). It sounds like he won't learn much new material from the kits, although practicing *doing* an experiment (even from a fine motor skill perspective) couldn't hurt.

I looked into TYSC kits, and found they are *much* cheaper on Amazon as sets than they are as a subscription (even discounted through the HS co-op).

KJP, the bacteria kit description sounds like fun, even if not too deep. I'd *love* to know who has the cleanest feet in our family (although I already know who has the dirtiest!)

When I was looking at this kind of stuff, something else popped up. Zula Patrol science stuff. No experience. Don't even know if they are still out there.

I don't have any experience with MSB science kits.

Smithsonian Science Kits are what I'd recommend.

Our DS loves to come around to his MSB books still. That's why they haven't been donated yet.

DS saw the Smithsonian Volcano kit a few days ago when we were at the Scout store, and immediately asked for it for his birthday.

Do you have any in particular that you'd recommend?

We got a MSB kit for a gift about a year ago. DS5 was excited at first, but it turned out to be pretty basic, and he was very disappointed with the easy-cheesy experiments. There are all things you could do at home, with common household products, and he was expecting more science magic than watching mold grow on a banana (which he'd already seen before!). IMO, not worth the money. Then again, you just aren't going to get a really cool science kit these days anymore; no one wants the liability!