AudioScope Animal Guide

PROS:1. First and foremost, the kid loves it, loves it, loves it. It's really the only talking toy I have found that has held this rambunctious 4-yr-old's attention independently for large chunks of time.2. Appropriately sturdy and simple enough for 4-5 yr-old to manipulate without close supervision.3. Good variety of slides - from insects to plants to such things as salt and blood cells.4. Enough slides to keep occupied for a while but eventually the child will need to repeat, and that review and gaining of familiarity is when real incremental learning can take place. IMO, it's exactly the right number of starter slides.5. Bindi, Bindi, Bindi!!! As the voice of the toy, her high young tone has an excited childlike quality, so my child completely took to this as 'playing with a fun friend' rather than being asked to sit still or learn something. Do I want to listen to her pitch for an hour? - maybe not so much, but it was genius for them to use her. Very effective for the kiddos.CONS:1. The slides have a flat side and a grooved side and must go under the "microscope" magnifier flat side down or the notches don't fit in their slots to activate the sound. But you can't SEE the difference in one side vs. the other - you can only feel it. This can be difficult for a young child to perform and produces frustration when they're putting the slide in the right place but they can't get their pal Bindi to talk. I don't think this would be a problem for a 6-7 year old, but in the 4-5 age range, it's an issue.

This is honestly one of the best purchases I have ever made for my children. They both absolutely LOVE the Talking Microscope and I love that it's educational too! This was the most engaged that have ever been with a toy and they both spent the majority of the afternoon playing with it. My 3 year old loved loooking through the microscope and viewing the different slides. My 5 year old loved looking at the slides and learning the fun facts. It comes with lots of slides and each slide has 3 pictures and fun facts! My favorite part is the quiz mode which your child can use after hearing each slide fact. It's durable and the slides store inside the drawer compartment inside the Talking Microscope. I will absolutely be purchasing more of these for gifts in the near future! I highly recommend this Talking Microscope!

I was really pleased with the quality and ease-of-use of this microscope. It was a gift for a friend's child, and he really enjoyed it. It appears to have lots of options for kids of different ages, as well as good options to learn science and enjoy time working together with adults. Highly recommend for younger children!

My kids love this. The amount of slides you get is seriously impressive. You get a lot of them! I've even learned a few things from helping them use this microscope, and listening to the information. It's sturdy, which makes it age appropriate for younger kids who are more prone to grab or roughly handle things. It's sweet to hear Bindi Irwin's voice, after growing up as a fan of her dad. We homeschool, and this is a nice addition to our science material.

The Talking Microscope is awesome! There are many reasons why I, as a parent, love this microscope. First, I love that it is educational. Not only does my four-year-old get to see all kinds of things up close, but the microscope identifies what is on each slide and tells him all about it (honeybees, mosquitoes, cat fleas, tadpoles, human tooth, etc.) so that he knows what he is looking at. He even enjoys the quiz feature. I do, too, because I can tell he really is learning and retaining the information presented. He then likes to quiz me on what he’s learned! The microscope also talks in four languages so we can add language arts to our science learning. The second reason I love this microscope is because it is so easy to use. When it arrived, I showed my four-year-old how to use it, and in minutes, he was able to use it independently. He can take it out himself anytime he wants to look at slides. A brilliant aspect to this microscope is that the slides are stored with the microscope. The slides are all contained in a drawer that fits into the base of the microscope so we always know where the slides are. The third reason I love this microscope is because my son enjoys it so much. He thinks it cool to see all of the things up close. I haven’t found a downside to this product other than I hope that GeoSafari Jr. comes out with more slides because we will soon have these memorized!