Thames & Kosmos Bouncing Planets Experiment Kit

We had so much fun with this Bouncing Planets set. I was able to have a lengthy talk with my children about planets ain our solar system, while creating something fun. All kids love bouncy balls and having a kit to create your own makes it so cool! The kit has everything you need. The granules are easy to use, I recommend shaking the bag to get them all to one end before opening. The mold seems small, but compressing thr granules is important and making sure the mold is full, is essential to getting thr right shape and texture.

My boys are really interested in the planets and they love bouncing balls so I thought this kit would be perfect for them. It came with everything you need to make 5 planet bouncing balls, although we were able to make 6, and the instructions were easy to follow. After you make the planet balls in the little forms, you have to let them dry before you can actually play with them. They were alot of fun for the boys at first when they were firm enough to play with, but after they dried completely, they were hard and didn't really bounce very well. Although, they didn't work out for us as bouncing planets, my boys still enjoyed making them and mixing the different colors on each planet. I must admit, I wasn't too awfully sad that they didn't bounce very well as the boys tend to bounce balls in the house and knock things over. I think this is a good educational kit in it gives kids a chance to use their hands and imagination when creating the different planets.

The Bouncing Planets is a fun and semi messy science kit. We would have rated it higher but our particular kit had 3 of one side of the molds and only 1 of the other side so we were only able to make one at a time instead of two. Doesn't take a super long time to make your fun Bouncing Planets, but beware of the left over polymers in the containers and throw that part out instead of rinsing it down the sink. We suggest having some wax paper on hand too for the finally drying, as it will stick to everything (and if you're using a form of paper to rest them on, it will get stuck). Enjoyed our time together making them, but kiddo was bored with them after a few bounces “It feels like they're coming apart”.

My 11 year old daughter made the little balls. As far as I can tell she followed the directions. They barely bounced when they were first made. They were very hard and I would definitely say not to attempt to bounve on wood. Now that they are dry they're even worse. Like a jawbreaker. If you have a kid that just wants to make planets this would be OK. My kid wanted bouncing planets and they didn't deliver.

This made for a fun few hours with the kids one night. Very simple and easy to use, simply put the material in the mold and drop in warm water for a few minutes. Pretty cool making your own bouncy ball. Only complaint would be the ball molds, it was hard to get it filled to the very top, even when it looked like it was filled there would be a small gap at the top of the ball so it never looked complete.