Crystal Garden

Now that the boys are getting a little bigger, we thought we would do some fun "experiments" with them. I purchased the Schylling Crystal Garden at a local toy store. Turtle Pond Toys. I like to support local shops. If you can't find it in a shop near you, you can find the kits online.

The pieces. (Our base was clear plastic)
Instructions, 4 packets of clear liquid, treated cardboard cutouts

I let the boys (ages 5 and 3) help me "put together" the pieces. What a pain.
I can see why it is for ages 8+
The pieces don't really fit/stay in place, so it's frustrating for little fingers (and big ones)
to get all of the pieces to stand up. 

Because the directions stated the Crystal Garden would start growing "within a couple of hours",
we waited for Griffin to get home from school before adding the "magic solution".
We carefully poured the clear packets into the "channels" the pieces started soaking up the liquid immediately.

Two Hours Later
"Something is happening!"

The boys were excited to see the crystals "growing" on the trees and the grass.
This is the last picture I took on day 1.

The Next Morning!!
I was impressed and the kids were very excited about their trees. It turned out far better than I had thought it would.
Hard to have high hopes for some cardboard and unmarked packets of clear liquid.
I think it turned out looking very close to the picture on the box!

Now, I'm not sure how long this would normally last. After two days of the boys being very careful not to touch it, I knocked over one of the trees, myself. (Wonder where they get their clumsiness from?) It crumbled apart immediately.

I haven't tried this myself, but it looks like it's basically the same experiment: