Milky Way Our STEM System

I purchased this for my 4-year-old granddaughter, but decided she was not quite ready for it. So I waited for her fifth birthday and then brought it out for her inspection. Yes, she had heard about the planets and wanted to put the kit together. So far we have worked on it for two sessions. We assembled it together, and then she painted the sun and the planets in their basic colors. Next, she will paint the details and apply the glow-in-the-dark paint. She has very much enjoyed construction and painting, and comments on the relative smallness of the earth compared to the other planets and the sun. She understands that, so far as we know, only the earth has animal and plant life. Next we will talk about how the planets revolve around the sun and how the earth rotates on its axis, creating day and night. The kit is perfect for illustrating the two movements.

This is a great project for kids who are learning about space and the planets. My oldest who’s 11 was able to do it all by himself, but my 7 yrs. old needed help. The planets and arms are all labeled, but the metal pegs are not so it was kinda tricky deciding which one went to what planet. The arms do rotate allowing you to change the position of the planets. We did not use the paint that came with the kit, but instead used our own acrylic paint. It was decent my kids just wanted different colors. Once the paint dried it was all very easy to assemble. Overall my kids really enjoyed the kit and I would buy it again.

My son wants to become an auerospace Engineer and a professor who invented the Oscar 3 who mentors him (asperger age 10) had gave me a few gift ideas for his birthday.
Hex robotics,
Engineering activities for kids,
Auerospace engineer book for kids,
This was one of the gift ideas and he loved it. He loved them all. He immediately started working on this and telling me the whole solor system. I knew he knew a little but not that much lol. But then again he is mentored by an auerospace and mechanical inventor professor. This is a must for the space lovers and does not break your pocket. They also have this at walmart same price.

Small but great if you don't have space for a big permanent one. My daughter is 7 and really enjoyed painting and assembling this together. The plastic sphere halfs need to be snapped together which I found was hardest for her. If we had to do it again I would make sure I broke each one out of their holders one planet at a time. The reason is that some planets are the same size and the labeling is just one really small character printed on the inside of the shape. So, I just had to find, read and snap them together. She did all the painting and was able to read the gray arms that they sit on. They don't snap on so they can come off easily but so far we haven't lost a planet or the sun. My daughter has learned well with it and it was fun for her to do. Would recommend to others as a home learning device.

It was perfect for our needs as an elementary home school family. My first grader loved it and was able to learn from the 3D, hands-on experience. There's no better way to learn an abstract concept. I snapped the planets together and sanded them slightly with the sandpaper square to "rough them up" before painting, as suggested. My seven-year-old and I snapped them into position on the model and then painted them together. The paint adhered to the planets very well. The glow paint didn't work well when we mixed it with other paints, but it did work well on the planets that we applied it to as a top layer (just a little FYI). This model is very small, but that works well for us. Just for reference, the "sun" is about the size of a ping pong ball. Jupiter is about the size of a giant marble, maybe a bit larger. The planets and distances between are not to scale but served our purpose well. We were wanting to learn about orbits, positions of the planets, and sequence from the sun.