Crystal Garden Young Scientist Set

This set is AWESOME! I highly recommend it! I purchased it to grow crystals in the office as a fun experiment to keep me entertained during busy season and it did not disappoint. You need to be sure to follow the instructions carefully. I made a fatal error on my first attempt and did not wait the full 30 minutes before I added the crystal seeding and nothing ended up growing. On the subsequent attempts I followed the instructions to a T and was able to grow beautiful crystals. I even ordered a second set because the results were astounding.The steps are simple enough I was able to grow these in my office with ease. All you need is boiling water and the rest is provided in the kit. The first step is to dissolve the crystal mixture (it looks almost like sugar) into hot water. Next, you have to let it sit for 15 minutes, and then transfer it into a clear plastic container where the crystal will grow. WAIT ANOTHER 30 MINUTES after the water is transferred. This step is crucial otherwise the crystals will not grow.Once you have waited the allotted time you drop in the crystal seeds. They provide blue, red, and white crystals so you can mix and match them to create different colored crystals. It seems that each type of crystal seed grows a different shape of crystal. I noticed that the red crystal seeds will grow more block-like crystals whereas the blue seeds will create more sharp/pointy crystals that flower out. Blue and red will create a crystal that looks like a combination between the two - it flowers out but is more block-like. Keep this in mind when you choose the colors you make.You will start seeing growth overnight. Its amazing to watch the progress. On the instructions it says it takes 4-7 days before the crystals are fully grown. I would keep an eye on them and drain the water when the crystal is about to emerge from the water. If you leave it too long the crystal is exposed to the air it will form "snow-like" growths on the top (which I think are ugly). The rate of growth will be affected by the temperature of the room as well as the size of the crystal you are growing. The crystals grow well in warmer temperatures. The small crystals will finish growing faster than the large ones.Each bag of crystal mixture can either make 1 large one, 2 medium sized one, or 4 small ones. The kit allows you to grow 1 large crystal, 2 medium crystals, and 4 small crystals simultaneously because that is the amount of containers they provide. If you want to grow 3 large ones you can grow them one at a time because they only provide one large container. I think the large crystals are the coolest.All in all this is an amazing kit. Everyone in the office is jealous and now they want to grow their own crystals too. 5 stars!!! I want to make ALL the crystals!

My son grew a nice big crystal, he was pretty impressed! It was pretty fragile though, he broke it right away. Still, we had fun growing it.

I purchased this for my boyfriend's birthday. We had the best time watching them grow day by day. We made 3 the first weekend and tried to make 4 more the next one. Well...he didn't make sure the water was boiling so the crystal powder didn't fully dissolve. He tried to boil more water and mix it in...then pour some out to make sure we didn't have too much water....didn't work. They didn't grow. The measurements need to be exact and directions followed. We will try again soon.

So cool my 9 year old is going crazy growing crystals . It's so cool to watch the day to day transformations.

This is awesome. What an great starter crystal growing kit for kids! My 10 year old son & my husband did this & my little scientist checked on his crystal every day to watch it grow. He loved it.I ended up ordering another larger kit last week. We will bring that out on a rainy day.Your kids will love this & it's not an iPad or video game :-)