4M KidzLabs Crystal Mining

I purchased two of these kits for my local Boys and Girls Club (where I volunteer). I thought they would be an interesting way to get kids excited about science (and a lot of my kids show ZERO interest in school, so that was hoping for a lot out of them). I had NO idea how big of an ordeal these kits would become! A few kids took interest right away. And to be honest, they were the kids who liked science class in school. But soon after they dug out a rock or two- a dozen more kids showed up. And then a dozen more! Soon every kid was clawing their way into the rock, shouting "I found one!" and getting excited to look up what kind of rock they had gotten. It was an interactive experiment that got them involved and excited about science! I was so excited for them! These kits are made for only one child, but we had to share ours amongst many kids. This was okay- but at the end of the day only a few of the kids had rocks to take home. I have more listed on our Amazon wish list in the hopes we can do this again and end it with everyone having rocks. Each kit comes with a large block of what seems to be hard-packed sand. There are also a few tools to dig with, and a brush to 'ease' the rocks out of the block. There is a small leather pouch to safely keep your rocks in, and also an identification sheet which lists out all of the rocks with a picture and a short description. The blocks are relatively easy to chip away at. With one kid I'd say it'd take a good hour to find all of the rocks. With multiple kids it took us about ten minutes. But the ten minutes was well worth it! There were so many things we were able to discuss. We got to talk about excavating things- and how people also do this same exact thing with dinosaur fossils (which was awesome!). We got to discuss different kinds of rocks, and identifying them (also learning where they came from and how they were made). And most importantly, we got to get excited about science! Of course, the kids didn't realize it was 'Science' (the same thing they despise in school). And once I explained that it was- a few even noted that they actually enjoyed science now. And science was fun. I seriously cannot even begin to describe how awesome of a toy this is. I recommend it to EVERYONE! Granted it may not be as cool as a race car or as intrigueing as an xBox game. But it is really really engaging, and most of all- educational!

Worth it, as expected my son enjoyed digging out the stones. And he's played with them for years. Keeps them entertained for an hour or so originally but something they play with for years to come. Worth the purchase

First day of summer vacation, and it's raining! Happily, this arrived in the mail today. It arrived at the same time as the Mine for Gems Science kit, a product with a similar makeup but three times the price. My 7 year old used this kit, and his 5 year old brother used the other one. While the Mine for Gems kit comes with a plaster block in a tray and a metal tool, this one is a small block wrapped in plastic and comes with a plastic tool. When the boys took their kits out, my older boy was initially disappointed with his smaller block and plastic tool. However, he brightened up at the magnifying glass. After my son flicked some of the dirt from the block into his eye, he got his pool goggles for the rest of the work. I highly recommend this, no only because eye protection is a good idea, but he looked like a super cute scientist. We also got out our actual hammer and he used the back side of the hammer to get the block into pieces. That was when he finally started finding gemstones. It took some time and patience, and I had started trying to soak pieces in water to help, but he ended up finding several when he finally got the block to break down the middle. The set says it comes with 8 gemstones, but he actually ended up with 12! I thought maybe he'd broken a couple with the hammer, but as the gemstones are tumbled and smooth, I found that that was not the case. All in all, it was the perfect rainy-day activity, fun and educational, and I'm happy with this purchase. It's very affordable, so no complaints about the included tools, but you may want a hammer to get things going.

I must mention that we haven't tried very many of these digging sets before, but that being said, my kids loved it. They're 10, 6 and 4. And honestly if you throw in a few plastic butter knives, you don't have to worry about rationing out dig time. (Yes, they shared one block.) Anyways, the plaster was a good enough consistency that it wasn't extremely hard to get through and not so sandy that it crumbles in between your fingers. The rocks were a bit lumped in together, but (in my opinion) had enough plaster in-between. Also it's worth mentioning that the older the kid the faster they seem to go through it... Should seem obvious but I think sometimes people buy this thinking it's going to keep a 10 year old entertained for hours. It won't. The box says it comes with 8 crystals. I believe we ended up with 11. I've including pictures of just a few I could track down, kids hid the rest. We got a few amethyst, rose quartz and just a single dolomite and clear quartz. I was actually impressed by the size of most of these. Only about three of them were chip sized. The tools were decent enough, the hammer/scraper combo was alright I guess, the hammer isn't very heavy, it's plastic but I don't think you'd want it to be heavy because the rocks are real, quartz will break! They did the job just fine. All that being said, if the price point is less than $10, this is the best bang for your buck.

Ideal para regalo, para niños, mi sobrino quedo encantado.

Overpriced

It was a great way to keep him engaged with a reward at the end !

Includes all the tools required to dig out your crystal treasures. Fun kits for kids. Recommended.

My kid loved it