National Geographic Mega Crystal Growing Kit - Grow 6 Crystals with Light-Up Stand, Science Gifts for Kids 8-12

So far we have only made two but they turned out great! I did the tip about covering it for 24 hours on the first day, I think it helped.

Got this kit for my son last christmas, we have finished growing all the crystals. Such a fun activity to do with your kiddo on a rainy day. Kit came with everything we needed and the instructions were easy to follow. Loved using this kit because it also leaves your kid with somthinf they can keep. My son is 10 years old and he was able to do most of it himself!

This was a gift for my 9 year old for Christmas. He liked it, easy to do and the crystals mostly did great. Out of the 6 , only 1 didn't grow very well. Unsure why. Be aware the light up device only holds 5 crystals, not 6.The instruction booklet is outdated. It sent you to a video link that doesn't work, but it's easy enough to youtube "national geographic crystal growing". Another point is that the video instructions conflicted with the booklet. One said "grow in the dark".. the other said "grow in the light/warm room".. In the end we did half the batch like the video and the other half like the booklet. It was a great learning experience in experimenting and teaching my son to observe which was 'better'.The box also contained just 2 plastic containers.. but we used glass cups from our kitchen since you have to wait 7+ days. We experimented which did better in the soft plastic container v.s. glass cup..

Great kit and the crystals that grew in the SILICONE cups came out nicer than the ones in my glass cups. YOU DO NEED TO REMOVE THE SEED ROCK to use it with the light stand. For that they recommend a spoon.. NO NO NO use a Dremel tool and lightly drill the center, the seed rock will loosen and you'll have a better crystal.FEW REVISIONS for NAT GEO:1. Please, if you give us 8 crystal growing kits... give us 8 SILICONE cups... not 4. We did pay $30-$40 for this.2. Find an easier way to remove the seed rock other than using a spoon (this will destroy major crystal growth).3. Your directions and your videos are contradicting. (The directions say to place crystals in a well lit area whereas the video shows the crystals placed in a cabinet with the doors closed.TIPS for BUYERS and Crystal growing customers:#1- USE A DREMEL TOOL to remove the seed rock. Drill in the center and then around till the seed rock moves. This is the BEST WAY to keep the crystal in its best shape#2- USE ONLY THE SILICONE CUPS or ONLY SILICONE CUPS in general. (We grew 4 in glass cups and they turned out beautifully but to remove them I had to destroy the sides to move the crystal out)#3- Store half in the dark and half in light. I say this because I am ASSUMING that the crystals stored in the dark may turn out more darker and richer in color. All of our crystals were in a well lit area and my red is a pink.#4- If you don't plan to use the display lighted stand... you don't need to remove the seed rock... AND THAT will give you better looking crystals.SO EVEN WITH ALL THESE SUGGESTIONS... I STILL SAY its a GREAT KIT! and Fun for kids.

This is so cool! My son and I enjoyed making these crystals together. He now displays them in his room.

Great project for my nine-year-old grandson!

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The media could not be loaded. So I need to revise my review. At first I was very pleased with this “Mega crystal growing lab” until we bought another National Geographic crystal growing lab. The new kit only has 3 crystals to grow in it and a sleaker lighted base but what bothered me was the differences in the instruction book and the difference in the seed rock. In the kit that I am reviewing the instructions say after boiling a cup of water to pour a small amount of the crystal growing powder into the hot water and stir it with the starring stick until it dissolves, then pour in a little more powder and keep stirring, continue pouring and stirring until no more powder will dissolve into the solution. This process should take no more than five minutes Then it says to carefully pour the crystal growing solution into your crystal growing chamber, then let the solution cool for 15 minutes and then place in the seed rock and to leave the experiment undisturbed for 7 to 10 days while the Crystal grows. We followed these instructions to a T. Now the new set with only three crystals in it, the instructions say to pour ALL of your crystal growing powder into the growing chamber and then pour the cup of boiling water into the crystal growing chamber and to stir for two minutes until it is fully dissolved then let cool for 10 minutes And carefully place the seed rock into the solution and it says to let it sit for 3 to 4 days but for best results, let it grow for seven days. We did this two days ago. It hasn’t even been a full 48 hours and the crystals are already bigger in two days than the ones we made from this kit following this kit instructions that we let sit for a week and a half. We only made four crystals out of this set that I’m reviewing but two of those four we could not pull the seed rock away from the crystal for the light of the base to shine up through the crystal so I’m having to take a Dremel tool and try to drill it out so the light will shine through it. As I said earlier, the seed rocks from this other national geographic set were different. They were kind of smooth, so I’m thinking that they’ll pop out easier but the two that I was able to remove from this set one of them removed fine but the second one the crystal actually broke while removing it and then like I said two more I couldn’t even get to remove so I will post pictures of what I have right now and then in a few days once these other crystals are finished growing. I will update my review again to let you know if those seed rocks came out easier, and I will also share pictures of both instruction guides, but if you are going to buy this kit, I suggest going by the instructions that say to dump all of the Crystal powder in at once because doing it a little bit at a time in a little bit at a time the water cools off and you can’t dissolve as much Crystal powder so your crystals don’t grow as big. I still think it’s a great experiment to do with your kids. I just wish that the instructions were the same as in the other set so we would’ve got a better result. Also I wanted to add that it truly is just the difference in the instructions that made the difference because the red crystal and the glow in the dark crystal that we are growing now came out of the mega crystal growing lab set. Only the crystal powder for the blue crystal came from the new set. So use the instructions pictured here that say use all the crystal powder!My 5 year old son and I had so much fun making these crystals. It’s a good value and easy to use and clean up was a breeze. The hardest part was finding a place in my home to set it where it would be undisturbed while the crystal grew. But when it was finished we had big beautiful crystals! I love the lighted stand to display your crystals on but you have to be super careful removing the crystal from the silicone growing container or you will break shards off of your crystals. Totally worth the money! We still have a few more to grow. I personally can’t wait to do the glow in the dark one!