Discovering a Big Bag of Science – super-absorbent squishy crystals

A fellow mum kindly shared online that she and her kid were having lots of fun with this kit. Hence, when the hubby went to the US on a worktrip, I prevailed upon him to bring it back, after I ordered it online. 🙂

Initially, he was of the “what-is-this-bulky-thing-I-am-lugging-home” opinion, but when we started using this, he felt it was indeed interesting and even commented that it would make for a good gift to others!

I was mainly thrilled to note that the bag contained more than 70 activities.  As any of you with young children know, they are always asking, “What can I do now Mummy?” and if your kid is like mine, she’ll say “With my HANDS!” which means a craft, or painting, or ever since we opened this package, Science Experiments.
Although it sounds nerdy, the activities in this pack are not rocket science, or with O-level motor skills requirements (no need for glass pipettes or very steady hands).  Even my little 27 month old could participate somewhat!

It was great that the instruction booklet was extremely clear and detailed. It lists the materials you need to take from the bag, and what you need from your home (usually easily available materials like a kitchen towel, a cup of water, etc). 

The booklet then brings you through step by step, with a good dose of humour – if you look closely point 3 advises you to dispose of these crystals properly, since it could cause your “plumbing system to have nightmares”. Hur hur hur.

The activities are arranged in sequence, so sometimes, what is made in one experiment is meant to be used immediately for the next.  So do read ahead, so you can figure out how many activities you can do in the time that you have.

The little rock hard crystals slowly grew, and started floating…

In an hour, they had soaked up all the water (their chemical structure contains “nets” which can “hold” water) and turned into soft jelly!

The girls simply loved squishing the jelly around, and kept asking for their turn…

 Since there was only so much fun they could have messing around with the jelly in a small cup, I decided to let them loose in the balcony area so they could do whatever they liked with the jelly (pick up and throw!) within the boundaries of a broadsheet.

We have been having so much fun with this, so I thought it’d be nice to share it here.  Let’s put our hands together to welcome the Big Bag of Science (BBOS) weekly series – a science activity a week keeps your kids on their feet!



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  1. Thanks for sharing this! I love the idea of a science kit that I can use with the kids. I am off to search for it on the web.

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