We took our daughter to the natural history museum in D.C. Right before we left, we found that they actually had a child exploration room! The room was amazing and equipped with everything from a dress up corner, to hieroglyphic stamps. It had a coloring station, a light table, a skeleton, rocks, microscopes, weights to measure on a scale, and so much more!
The first thing we tried with Caroline was the microscope. She watched me put a rock on the specimen tray and look through the eye pieces. She was hooked. She was doing it all on her own from that point on. She’d put an object on, and look through the eye pieces. Cutest thing in the world!
Turns out, we couldn’t interest her in anything else. She looked at the weights briefly, and even stamped her fingerprint, but then wanted to go immediately back to the microscope. She was fascinated by it and having so much fun.
The next day, I searched online for microscopes and found this amazing one that was perfect for her. Her grandparents happened to have the same idea, and find the same microscope. Needless to say, we had it a few days later, along with my husbands rock collection (well part of it).
This microscope is perfect for little ones, and Caroline is really enjoying it. It magnifies up to 8x, and even has a little light to turn on. They can focus the object and look through the eye pieces. It is a great example of a microscope for this age! It is also really lightweight and made of plastic, so I’m not worried about anything breaking. It is really sturdy and will last a long time! We could even take this outside on a walk while we do some exploring, since it’s so compact and lightweight.
I love that she’s enjoying this item so much. I really like the idea of introducing her to science at a young age. Science is so much fun and young children really enjoy the exploration aspect. Anything that can encourage problem solving and exploration is a huge win. This “toy” is perfect and she’ll enjoy it for several years to come.