Homeschool Science Lab Kits ~ A Beakers-O-Fun Review {& Giveaway!}

Beakers-O-Fun are the same folks who brought us Buckets-O-Fun (remember the samples of Yuck we used in We're Going on a Bear Hunt?!).  Well, they put together a science lab kit for homeschoolers and sent me one to review! (They contacted me after getting so many requests for samples from people reading my post!)

We received Homeschool Pack #2, which includes the Water Dropper Diver Lab, the Making a Flashlight Lab, and the Crystals and Powders Lab.

The kit sells for $29 and includes materials and reproducible student and teacher lab sheets for each experiment.

The student lab sheets include:

• a learning prompt


• materials list (most of which are included in the lab!)


• directions


• experimental options


• questions


• diagrams, tables or charts

The teacher lab sheets include:

• the purpose of each lab


• science skills taught


• teacher directions to students


• things your student needs to know


• answers to the student questions

I'm excited to share this with you for several reasons:

#1 When Sheri first contacted me to review a science kit, they did not currently offer homeschool science lab kits. I asked her to put together a kit that I thought would be more suitable for homeschoolers, and she did! (Their regular kits would be perfect for co-ops! But, I don't have a co-op sized budget for our little homeschool).

#2 These are fun kits and can be added to your regular science curriculum (or unit study), or they can be used independently for some science fun.

#3 These are quality kits.

Water Dropper Diver Lab

This one was very cool. It was literally a "Beaker-O-Fun" as we made a water dropper dive and come back up, we counted how many drops we could fit on a penny and why, and we made a small amount of baking soda power the sub to dive down and come back up on it's own.

Making a Flashlight Lab

Crystals and Powders Lab

My younger kids were most excited about the Crystals and Powders Lab, so I'll share more detail about this one.

The science skills taught in this lab include:

• Making good observations


• Gathering data


• Recording data


• Using science tools correctly

Malachi put 1 spoonful of each powder or crystals on the tray and then using the magnifier, he carefully described each substance in its dry state and recorded the characteristics on a table. Then he slowly added water, 1 drop at a time, and observed the changes in each substance and recorded it.



Making good observations is key in this experiment. With the help of the Teacher Directions, I guided him by encouraging him to be specific using the terms provided, such as whether it was a crystal or a powder and the definition of each, along with descriptive helpers of color, touch, size, and texture.



Here are some descriptive helpers offered:

• Color: white, off white, clear white, shiny white, bright white, dull white yellowed white, dirty white, etc.


• Touch - soft, squishy, firm, hard, very hardgrainy, sandy, powdery, sticky, etc.


• Size - very large, large, medium, small, very small, tiny, etc.


• Texture - from very rough to very smooth, like salt, sugar, flower or baking soda, etc.

Then we were encouraged to play with the Yuck samples on a larger scale. And we did!



The Saucy, Snowy, Sticky, and Chunky Yuck crystals and powders provided are generous amounts and we had LOTS left over after our lab! See our row of We're Going on a Bear Hunt and our science lab using Sodium Polyacrylate for more ideas on how to use Yuck powders.

The labs are clearly laid out, easy to use, and my kids had a lot of fun with them!

Beakers-O-Fun offers 3 homeschool packs with 3 different labs each:

Homeschool Pack #1 ~ $23.00

• Awesome Air Pressure/Straw Rockets


• Bean Seed Dissection


• Magnetic Attraction

Homeschool Pack #2 ~ $29.00

• Crystals and Powders


• Making A Flashlight


• Water Dropper Diver

Homeschool Pack #3 ~ $24.00

• Insect Orders


• Magical Magnetism


• Spinning White Light

Beakers-O-Fun would like to offer a giveaway to one of my readers ~ your choice of one kit! To enter to win, take a look at each kit and leave me a comment letting me know which kit you'd like to win, and enter using the GiveawayTools widget on my blog. The winner will be automatically announced on the widget, so be sure to check back at the end of the giveaway!

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