Educational Insights Nancy B's Science Club Black Light Illuminator & Nature's Mysteries Journal

My 9 & 7 year old were fighting over it the first day we got it. They had a great time hiding in the bathroom and using the black light on different objects and seeing which things would glow. The workbook that it comes with, is very well written and easy to follow with tons of interesting facts and really fun activities. I would say about half the activities need the help of an adult, so I thought it was a great way to do something fun and educational together. I like that there is a good balance of things that they can do on their own as well using everyday household items. My daughters were also fascinated by the magic pen and writing secret messages to each other. Overall, we thought it was a great product. I'm always on the hunt for unique birthday gifts for their friends, and I think this would be such a fun gift.

This is an item my granddaughter will enjoy having and using.

We have 2 girls, aged 6 and 4, who were both intrigued by the black light illuminator! They loved using it to examine different items, some on their own, some as proposed by the book included in the package. It was fine for our 6 year old to use the illuminator on her own. However, we made sure an adult was around when our 4 year old participated too to ensure that she never looked into the light. (She was very intrigued by the illuminator too!) They examined all types of objects around our home, and used many of the suggestions in the included Journal. The toy is well made and seems quite durable.

I'm a pediatric occupational therapist in a school district and received this toy in exchange for an honest review. I have to say that I was HONESTLY surprised by how many of my clients from age 5-10 years old were motivated to use this toy. As a therapist, I utilize what's meaningful to the child to create functional sensorimotor changes in order to improve their ability to participate in the classroom. With that said, I unfortunately didn't use the journal yet, but I did browse through it and the activities look great. It will definitely keep your little one busy at home. Since there weren't too many rocks on my campus, I hid small rocks that I found on several hike adventures into playdough, and then challenged my kiddos to find it with their vision occluded. After finding at least 5 rocks, they used the illuminator to discover surprising colors that they were unable to see without the illuminator. I then challenged them to write the colors they found with a highlighter, which glowed beautifully under the blacklight. We've also worked on improving their hand writing skills by simply writing on standard paper with the highlighter, and then as a reward, they got to watch it "glow" under the blacklight. My kiddos have termed the illuminator the "Magic Light." What a great way to get kiddos writing!

This is right up my son's alley and mine!! He loves science and yet does not have the patience for long experiments. These are just the right amount of time to keep him interested and learning new things. He was so excited when he opened it, I think he would have done the entire book today if he could have. I love the fact that I am not having to go out to the store to purchase a bunch of items for these experiments. The instructions are easy enough for him to follow on his own to do by himself. Although, I found myself wanting to do some with him. Has a nice amount of experiments in the book for the price as well. Will definitely continue to follow Nancy B's Science Club books.

My daughter - 10 - and her friend had a lot of fun playing with this toy. They first stayed within the scope of the instructions, and learned what the black light reveals and how different substances varied in their response. Then they got more inventive and sillier, going outside of the box and testing different items not listed in the instructions to see the result. These experiments spurred their scientific curiosity, with them next going well outside of the scope to create concoctions and potions. They got sillier and sillier as crafted new experiments while having a great time. So not only was the toy itself educational, it created a mindset of intellectual curiosity that will serve them well beyond playing with this toy.

I received this product from Education Insights for my daughter to review. It comes with a hand held black light, an invisible ink black light pen, and a Nature's Mysteries Journal. The black light is the perfect size for little hands, comfortable to hold and seems durable. The pen works great and shines under the light and the journal is filled with experiments! Some of the experiments include shining the light on a bunch of everyday household things to see if they glow and to what level, checking money for counterfeit, seeing if rocks and minerals glow, and making food that glows. My daughter has been having a great time running all over the house seeing what will react to her light. She has been following the book and trying things out. She found out that money has a fluorescent strip in it that glows to prove it's real and that highlighter glows very bright. There is a page on glowing rocks and minerals and I gave her a big box of gems that we mined for last fall. She sat in a dark room to find out which glowed but there were only a few that showed up orange instead of the black light purple color. I feel that this is an amazing products for kids. It's the perfect blend of education and fun and really holds their interest and makes them want to learn more. Also after the journal is filled up, kids can continue to use the pen and black light to write secret messages!

Comes in an easy to open plastic pack, containing 22 page journal (12 different activities with fun facts), blacklight (with 3 LED lights; approx. 5.5" long), instruction guide and an invisible pen. Light worked well; best used in the dark, but can be used even if there's ambient light. My 8 year old daughter immediately started shining the light on different objects and said, "This is fun!" I liked the fact that it has 3 lights, and therefore provides a wider space that it covers. The activity book had some great ideas, from looking at different dollar bills to rocks to different objects. While you have to collect some objects, i.e. rocks or flower, others are more readily available, thus providing projects that one can easily do. There's a plug for the Nancy B Science Club, which also highlighted women in science; I liked the positive female role models, since I have a daughter. The club website looked interesting, so I signed up for the club, as I am always looking for fun learning activities to do at home. Pros: easy to use & activity book was easy to understand; offers ideas beyond writing secret messages (why my daughter wanted it in the first place) providing a fun way to learn about fluorescence and UV lights. Note: requires 2 AA batteries and a screwdriver, although I was able to unscrew it with my fingers.

I gave this product to my 8 and 9 year old daughters one night when we had shut down access to screens. The girls really enjoyed many of the various activities and the pen actually worked exceptionally better than the ones I remember from the science kits in "my day". The light does not come with batteries though which is my only complaint as I had to scour the house for extra ones before they were ready to play. I would highly recommend this toy for a vacation or camping evening activity or late night car ride. In all, I think that my kids played with this toy for about 3 hours.

I gave this product to my 8 and 9 year old daughters one night when we had shut down access to screens. The girls really enjoyed many of the various activities and the pen actually worked exceptionally better than the ones I remember from the science kits in "my day". The light does not come with batteries though which is my only complaint as I had to scour the house for extra ones before they were ready to play. I would highly recommend this toy for a vacation or camping evening activity or late night car ride. In all, I think that my kids played with this toy for about 3 hours.