Educational Insights Nancy B's Science Club Microscope for Kids, Microscope Kit, Gift for Boys & Girls, Ages 8-12

As describe and excellent with age range

I bought this for my six year old granddaughter who is a very curious child. She was a little hesitant at first seeing everything so close up. Then as we started picking up every day things such as dust, grass, cat hairs, crumbs, she became more and more enamored with the microscope. It was a little difficult for her to manipulate her being only six. I will maybe would recommend this for somebody closer to eight years old and older. It was a little difficult for her to manipulate being only six years old. I would recommend this for somebody closer to eight years old and older. I chose this microscope for older kids rather then the one recommended for 3 to 6-year-olds because they were mainly plastic and were very basic. I wanted something that would grow with her as her interest in science Pete's. In the interim, I will work with her on the microscope which is a good alternative until she's ready to work on her own. It comes with a 22 page journal which the child can keep track of their activities and insights. She does write and read well so she is currently using the journal. I recommend this kit and I feel she will grow with it in the future.

This microscope should be used as a first-time microscope or a beginner one. This is not comparable to the ones we had in school back in the 90s and early 2000s, so do not expect it to look great. The included slides and the little kit are amazing and my daughter loved it. The overall feel of this is very light, it also requires batteries. The overall magnification of this microscope is good for the price of this, do not expect to see too much detail in this. This is by far not as powerful or good as a compound microscope, but hence why I said it is for an absolute beginner or first-time microscope user. The 400x magnification should be able to see bacteria, blood cells and protozoans swimming around; but this is just not powerful enough to see that closely. Overall, it is a great little microscope for the very basic user or beginner, but if you want to see details, I would go for a compound microscope.

Can't say enough about this brand and concept. Love it. Comes with an educational journal and gives you something to go on and just the right amount of information and knowledge to go on to continue on after and do yor own experiments. I chose this kit alone for the workbook because most microscopes don't give any kind of books or journals to go off of. Love the entire kit. Bought it for my 5 yr old and she is really into it. We are having fun learning together. It's just enough learning to not be too boring and also give a nice foundation and taste of what it's like to get into the lab part of science.Oh I was leary about the microscopen but it works! I'm impressed and also don't feel like I broke the bank. I have twin3 yr old boys and they are pretty rough so if they get ahold of it accidently or somehow it breaks, I won't be so upset because the price is just right.The image is of peacock feather with the back light. It's brighter in person than through my camera phone.. the white washed out the feather a bit in my camera.

I have to echo others' complaints here that the quality of this microscope is a bit low. It's good for the price, but if it was of a better quality, kids would be more able to use it and would stay a lot more engaged with it.The main problem is that any time you adjust the focus, the slide move around - on all 3 axes. This means that you can't just go back and forth, adjusting the focus, until you get it just right; there is a huge element of luck as you search for a moving target. It's unfortunate. I would have much preferred to pay $10 more for a microscope with a reliable focusing knob.Another minor problem is the optical sharpness, but I wouldn't expect much more from a scope of this price. It's definitely sufficient, but not much more. It is a great starter scope.Age-wise, this microscope (and I imagine using any microscope) was a bit complex for our 6-year-old Goddaughter to use; it's probably best for kids 8 and up. (If the focus worked, maybe drop that to 7.)If I had it to do over again, I'd shoot for a non-kids' scope of higher quality and pay more $ for it, in hopes that it would actually be *easier* for them to use.One nice feature is that it has both top and bottom illumination for the slides (you can toggle between them). The light isn't very bright, but it seemed to be enough.If this is a gift, I would also highly recommend ordering a prepared slide kit (25 or 50 slides) - it'll make the tool far more interesting out of the gate, as they add a big dose of instant gratification.

I ordered the Educational Insights Nancy B’s Science Club Microscope and Activity Journal and was mainly looking forward to utilizing for the science section of school for my kids (we homeschool our kids). The night we received it and took the microscope out of the box, I was amazed at how eager all of my kids were to get their hands on it! My fourteen year old son was especially excited about checking out different things under the different magnifications. When I was a kid, I had a microscope but, instead of a built-in light, I had to rely on a quarter-sized mirror at the bottom of the unit to reflect light across the specimen. Thankfully, this microscope is self-lit and it makes viewing the items on the slides a HUGE breeze! This item is great for my younger homeschooled kids in grades 1st and 3rd, but this has also proved helpful with my son’s experiments in 9th grade Biology. Thanks for making such a fun and easy to use product.I anticipate relying on this tool throughout the school year and just for fun :)