Now that N is in Grade One, we don’t really have much time to explore various themes like we used to. The twins keep me very busy, and whatever “spare” time I have is usually spent zoning out, instead of planning or preparing learning materials. I’ve been feeling a little bad about it, so I was quite excited when I came across Curious Kits.
Curious Kits provides Science and Arts Kits for hands-on learning, and you can choose to try out one kit first, or sign up for their 3 or 6 month subscription package. Each kit contains a carefully curated selection of 3-4 hands-on activities based on a theme, and is delivered directly to your doorstep. I chose the All Charged Up (Electricity) kit, as it’s a topic that I haven’t covered with N before, and the activities inside looked really interesting. Check out the photos below!
We started with the first activity: Electrical Circuit, and it was the first time that N got to use a screwdriver on his own! He was very enthusiastic about doing everything on his own, though I did have to help him a little when he couldn’t fix some items properly. He was so excited when the little bulb lit up and the buzzer rang, and kept testing the circuit out. Watch the short video he made to demonstrate how his circuit works!
N was really keen to start on the next activity after the success of the first one, but I decided to split the activities up into different days, to stretch out the learning process.
The Buzz Wire Making Kit required a little more assistance to complete, but N tried his best to do as much as possible on his own. I wanted to explain to him how it worked, but he was too busy playing with it to listen, so I gave up after a while.
The Potato Battery activity didn’t go as well as I’d hoped it would, and although we did manage to get the clock to work, it only happened once. N was rather disappointed and didn’t really want to try it with other food items, so I think this is an activity that we will revisit in a few months’ time. It was actually really easy to do, and he managed this activity with minimal help from me.
The DIY vacuum cleaner was probably N’s favourite activity in this kit, but he needed a LOT of assistance. I had trouble stripping the wires, and ended up breaking ALL the wires. Thankfully, they were still long enough to be threaded through the various parts, and we were able to complete it. N was so excited and went around looking for things to vacuum up. Watch the video demonstration of his DIY vacuum cleaner!
I was hoping that N would be curious about how the various activities worked, and tried engaging him in conversation a couple of times, but he just wasn’t interested in finding out more, as he wanted to play with what he had made. I’ll probably try to find some books about electricity, and read them with him, before revisiting some of the activities in this kit.
I liked that the kit had a variety of interesting activities, and that some of them came with short write-ups on how electricity works. It allows both parent and child to work together, and the pace of learning can be easily controlled. It is definitely a great introduction to the concept of electricity, and I’m glad that some of the activities can be repeated, as I can revisit them when N is ready to learn more about electricity.
Curious Kits has various different themed boxes, and I plan to get more of them for N when we are back in Singapore for good, as I think he won’t get to do fun experiments in school (read more HERE) for a while. If you enjoy doing hands-on learning activities with your children, do check out the Curious Kits website, and I’m sure you’ll be able to find at least one kit that is suitable. Have fun!
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GIVEAWAY TIME!
We have one ‘All Charged Up! (Electricity) Kit’ to be given away to one reader of Growing with the Tans! To participate, please visit our Instagram page. Terms and conditions apply.
Terms and Conditions: This giveaway will end on Thursday, 14th March 2019, at 2359h, and is open to readers with a Singapore mailing address only. The winner will be contacted via the particulars provided when entering this giveaway, and will have 24 hours to respond, failing which a new winner will be selected. All incomplete entries will be disqualified, and all entries will be verified before the winners are announced. To be fair to our sponsor, please note that all fake Instagram accounts (accounts set up purely to take part in contests, with no or very few real posts), will be disqualified. This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram.