Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion recommended chemisty kit?

Anyone have a good recommendation for a Chemistry Kit? A lot of the kits we are finding in local toy shops are cute and have stuff like how to make "insta snow" and "grow worms" but we are looking for a true chemistry set that contains chemicals/more than one step experiments... Would love to hear any recommendations - thanks

We have lots of the cutesy chemistry sets and some are better than others. Actually, Mind Blowing Science has some good experiments (particularly on pH) and decent descriptions of what is happening. It is the favorite of the kits we own. My kids are young (and I'm not adventurous) so we haven't tried the "real" kits yet.

Our local science museum "rents" kits for homeschoolers. That may be worth investigating in your area.

Thanks for the great suggestion of the local science museum...my little guy loved the cute stuff and we have always had some form or another of insta snow or goo or smelly stuff around the house from some of these kids kits and he really liked the Fizzy Foamy Science kits - he just brought up the other day that he wants to really learn about how to mix "real" chemicals and saw an ad we found online for a huge kit that cost like $150.00 but contained some really cool stuff...I just have no idea where to start...it's like looking for a good microscope - there are lots out there, some are junk and are some good and some are excellent...thanks for the idea

For older kids, this author advocates just buying supplies and using this lab book - Robert Thompson, Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture.

I've been reading the introduction and it does seem good - fun, not cutesy.

We got Thames and Kosmos Chem 3000 at the science museum. It is AWESOME. It has a great book and everything you need for real chemistry. Very fun!

nanros, what is the age? DD7 is doing experiments with edu science Deluxe scientist kit, it's experiments in physics and energy. Chemical, electricity, solar that type of thing. It's aged for 10+ , says it has 450+ experiments (dd done about 5 so far)