Thames & Kosmos Barbie Crystal Geology Science Kit

My 8 year old daughter went crazy for this. She liked sectioning off the excavation block and digging into a section at a time. It took her about an hour to finish. The tools included are a nice size, easy for small hands to hold onto and were of good quality. You get a hammer with a pick on the end, a brush and a chisel. The medium that holds the stones is not so hard that the scraping and digging is unpleasant to do. She found 3 stones ( white quartz, amethyst and pyrite). The stones were a little smaller than I expected but my kid was happy. A tip I got from another reviewer was to buy 9 x 13 disposable aluminum baking pan to place this in while your child is scraping away. It worked great to contain the dust and particle debris.

My niece really enjoyed digging up the three gems that were included and learning about geology. She made sure we thoroughly inspected all of the packed dirt to be sure there weren't any extra gems hanging around in there. She also was really excited to make jewelry out of the gems once she excavated and cleaned them.

One of the digging tools broke in process because it was made from flexible wire and the back and forth motions wore it out FAST.The stickem pads for making the rings do not even begin to actually hold the stones on the tiny plastic rings. Obviously.Was fun making the grid and finding the rocks in the clay chunk. Considering the price when I got it...I’m not overly disappointed. But underwhelmed.It is what it is.

My 7 year old daughter had fun digging up the jewels. It took about 30 min -1 hour. Essentially its a lump of clay with 3 stones in it. Was a little disappointed that the jewels seemed to be all clumped together, so it wasn't much "excavating" once she found the first stone. My daughter also mentioned how the stones didn't look like the stones in the story. The rings provided will never stick, so it was a bit of a waste to have it in the kit. If your daughter loves Barbie and stones/jewels (like my daughter does), I would recommend this, otherwise, I'm sure there might be better dig kits available or at least of less cost.

Ermergersh these are so cute! I’m more excited about them than my granddaughters will be, probably, since I’m the geologist and they are in the “ I’m a pwonceth!” “Haha, yeah! I’m princess poop!” phases at 4 and 5, but here’s hoping. The Barbies ate super cute though. I love that she comes with safety glasses and a helmet. Hoping to convince that I’m a princess, too, and that princesses can play with rocks. I can’t wait to open them! I mean, I can’t wait until THEY open them to play with them....maybe I should have gotten three.

Bought the item for my 7 yr old daughter as a rainy day project to do. She enjoyed it. The idea about digging for gems was great. The only part that fell short was making them jewels ( like rings). It was not sturdy enough. But, my daughter just kept her findings in a baggie.

This is such a fun activity. I bought this for my daughter's 5 year old birthday. I wasn't sure that she would enjoy it or keep her attention to continue digging but she loved it! Even after she cherished those gem rings and got so sad when she lost one (We found it). Glad I got it

I purchased this for my 5 year old and she had a blast with it. I was definitely hesitant because of a different digging set I had purchased being such a waste and it was almost impossible for me to even dig the stuff out. I caught this on sale and decided to give it a try. This was age appropriate and something she could do herself. She still talks about it and how much fun it was.

My almost three year old loves it... on my end not so much it is very very messy even outdoors and stays on the floor even after it rained twice!