Kaleidoscope – Magic Crate Activity

Hello!

Yes, one more Magic Crate Activity and this was like super duper entertainment. We loved it!!

Looking at the tube and the mirrors, my daughter Santoshi (six-years old) was quite skeptical because one of the very early magic crate kits had a telescope. We were not a fan of that activity as Magic Crate was fairly new at that time.

To ensure that this was a different thing altogether, I reminded Santoshi of a kaleidoscope which she had received as a party favour from one of her classmates. After that, Santoshi was eager to put the pieces together. Stickers for the film made it more gratifying.

Here is the finished piece.

 

What we felt about the kit:

• The kit comes with sturdy pieces, proper instructions and was easy to assemble.
• There were two films and a tip (as part of the instructions) to arrange the stickers in a different way in the second film so that a distinct pattern could be seen with the second film, which we did. What we also tried was to put both films together which created multiple sets depending on the placement of each film – see the images below.
• On this basis, the kit scores 9 for entertainment, 10 for instructions and 8 for kit quality.
• Quality would have been 9 if there were a few more films and stickers with more colours and smaller shapes / pieces.

Thanks for reading this post. We hope that you do find other interesting posts in our blog.

We have tried a few more of our magic crate activity this week and the last and also a few months back. We are trying to put together our experience with these kits. So, please visit us again for more posts on this!

Moon Rover – Magic Crate Activity

Hi!

This is a another magic crate activity which my daughter Santoshi loved – doing it and also what she ended up with. She was jumping with joy when the moon rover moved!!

Here is the video.

This moon rover activity made Santoshi wonder about how it moved, why one side of the magnet stuck to the moon rover while the other pushed it forward, etc.  So, while this activity gets 9 on 10 for learning and the excitement it created, instructions and the kit quality get only 7 on 10 because of the following:

• Instructions for ‘assembling the rover’s underside’ could have been more detailed. The parts are all symmetrical, which meant that I could not figure out which side should be up and which should be down. I don’t claim to be a smart cookie, but when the activity is targeted to six-year olds, I feel that the instructions could have been elaborate.
• The antenna had too big a hole in the centre that the pole did not hold it. (you will see that neither our pics nor the video have the antenna because it was loose and fell off the assembly)
• Camera which was to be inserted in the front of the moon rover was made of very thin cardboard so, in my opinion, its life is going to be very short.

Despite these minor limitations, the activity was fun!! Thanks Magic Crate!

Weighing Scale – Magic Crate Activity

Hi!

My 6-year old daughter Santoshi made me realise that I have not been spending much time with her or doing any activity with her like we used to do earlier. Since I quit my job more than a month back and we had some unopened Magic Crate activity kits with us, Santoshi took the initiative of picking a kit from her closet.

The kit had the materials and instructions to make a weighing scale. Santoshi wanted to do it by herself, which is actually the main purpose of these activities. As she still in kindergarten, she could not read the instructions, but the pictures were self-explanatory and she took my help only where she could not do it by herself (such as for adding the hooks to the pans).

Santoshi had a satisfied smile on her face once the weighing scale was finished.

Once done, I tried to explain to her how this works and where this object can be found in real life:

• Each of the pans could be loaded with one or more objects and it could be used to find out the heavier of the two objects or set of objects.
• The pan which is lower is heavier than the pan which is higher – works similar to a see-saw in that sense.
• Vegetable vendors who sell vegetables in a cart use this kind of weighing scale while selling vegetables (our grocery / produce stores have only digitial scales) using weights (500 grams, 1 kg, etc.)

Santoshi decided to test how well the weighing scale was working using some of her items – hairbands.

Here is a demo video of the weighing scale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9WkjVGsdNs

Unlike the initial activity kits by Magic Crate, this kit had comprehensible and easy-to-follow instructions and the materials were of good quality – cut the right way, aligning well, etc. making it easy to build / assemble. The weighing scale is quite sturdy. So, it might make it to our golu later this year! (if it stays in good shape)

It took about fifteen minutes to assemble / build the weighing scale and we spent another fifteen minutes in weighing hairbands in all possible combinations.

Thanks Magic Crate for a good quality, useful activity kit!

Stay tuned, because more posts are coming up on the other Magic Crate activities.