The Magic School Bus Rides Again: Secrets of Space By Horizon Group USA, Homeschool STEM Kits For Kids, Includes Hands-On Educational Manual, Star Chart, Constellation Cards, Solar Beads & More

Our son loves this! Some may get discouraged since the volcano arrives flat because the way it is shipped in the box. Here is the quick fix, which we learned from forming many a sports mouthpiece over the years:1) Get two large pots (both large enough to fit expanded volcano inside);2) Fill each with enough water to cover entire volcano;3) Heat one pot to close to a boil, the other pot should be filled with cold water;4) Remove hot pot from heat and dip volcano in hot water for 10 seconds;5) Remove volcano from hot water (use tongs if you have them) and place on counter;6) Immediately mold into circular form by rotating two hands around the sides (careful it's a little hot at this point);7) After molding for a few seconds (like 5) dip into cold pot for 10 - 15 seconds to hold the form.8) Remove from cold water - and it should look like a round volcano!9) You may have to repeat the steps a few times - we did (but only because we tend to be perfectionists :-)Hope this all helps! Happy Holidays folks!

I am a former teacher and current homeschool educator. I am very picky about science kits and generally most fall short of my expectations. This kit, however, is a wonderful jumping off point for an inquiry into dinosaurs. This kit used hands on activities to teach about the different types of fossils, carnivore and herbivore teeth, the different time periods, habitat, etc. The final project culminated in a 3D dinosaur puzzle to build and paint. The ideas were creative and I appreciate someone else doing the planning, material gathering, prep work for me!Some extension activities we did: made a full sized timeline and the children drew with sharpie and watercolorsd dinos to add to the timeline (simple tutorials can be found on the Art for Kids Hub website), we dissected owl pellets to recreate a paleontologist's thought processes, we printed a life sized Triceratops footprint and discussed perimeter, surface area and measuring, I drove my car at 15 mph and my son chased it to experience in a concrete way the speed of a T-rex, we measured dinosaur sizes on the wall and floor and marked them with tape, we made dino eggs out of paper mache, designed dino habitats/diorama for our Schleich dinos with materials from the dollar store, talked about ecosystems and food chains, learned about Mary Anning and sang "She Sells Seashells," etc etc.Have fun with your dino kit and enjoy learning with your child!

Items were crammed in the box so a lot of things got bent but other than that it looks fun. It does share the false theory dinosaurs went extinct from an asteroid. Look, if that really happened then all living creatures would have gone extinct, not just dinosaurs considering their fossils are found across all continents! Try reading some creation science research. I recommend ICR.org. It makes more sense with what we observe in this world.

The dinosaur model is frustrating, flimsy and lacks any kind of coherent directions. Even the online directions are basically useless. The cutout pieces are difficult to remove from the cardboard without tearing (many torn vertebrae and one arm lost). During assembly, some pieces stay in place, some seem like they need to be glued or taped. Quality is ca-ca. No way can a young child put this together and any adult will soon be babbling on the floor or using words young ears should not hear. In 7 years I have put together many dino models for my son; plastic, wood, metal, paper and this is by far the worst hands down.The activity book and the other hands on activities are good. It says 5+, but I think (model aside, which is suitable for no one, did I make that clear?) they are a few years off. Maybe I should give this another star because of the other stuff, but I cannot get that darn model out of my head.My son says not to give this a bad review because he likes the other stuff.

The Magic School Bus science kits are a fun way to teach science at home. My kids loved putting the little stickers on the scavenger hunt card. The kit also included a mold of a bear print, a bag of sand, a bag of plaster of Paris, five small pieces of plane cardboard, two sheets of black paper, a dozen black pipe cleaners, a bottle of powdered red paint, and a paintbrush, three balloons, tongue depressor, and a magnifying glass