Smithsonian Crystal Growing Kit for Homeschool Science Review

You can make studying crystals in homeschool science a lot of fun by using a crystal growing kit with your students. I used the Smithsonian Crystal Growing Kit with both of my daughters when they were studying crystals in fifth grade science. Growing the crystals wasn't complicated, dangerous, or difficult. I found it to be safe and easy to do with children. My daughters really enjoyed growing their own crystals and it added a lot to their study of crystals.

What The Smithsonian Crystal Growing Kit Includes. The kit has everything you need to grow real crystals, crystal clusters and crystal geodes. It comes with an instruction booklet, packages of different crystal growing chemicals, a bag of granite "base rocks" to grow the crystals on, plastic containers to grow the crystals in, a plastic geode mold, geode shell plaster, a measuring cup, wooden stirring sticks, plastic thread, a magnifying glass, safety goggles, and plastic stands for displaying your finished crystals.

The Crystals You Can Grow. The crystals you can grow with the Smithsonian Crystal Growing Kit come in an array of colors with packages for "Aquamarine Blue", "Frosty Diamond", "Golden Citrine", "Emerald Green", "Pink Quartz", "Rama Quartz", "Red Ruby Geode", and "Amethyst Geode". My daughters' favorites were the Emerald Green crystals and the Amethyst Geode crystal.

Easy-to-Follow Instructions. Each crystal you can grow has step-by-step instructions that are easy to understand and follow. The packages of different crystal chemicals are clearly labeled, making it easy to know you are using the correct package for each crystal you choose to grow. My daughters were able to do many of the steps themselves with my supervision. I think their favorite part was making the mold to grow a geode on.

After you prepare the container and or mold for the crystals to grow in, you make the chemical solution for your crystal. This is a fairly simple step. You keep a small amount of the package of dry crystal chemicals set aside as "seed" crystals and mix the rest with warm water until it completely dissolves. You then pour this liquid mixture into the container with base rocks or mold that you prepared. Next, you sprinkle the "seed" crystals you kept aside onto the base rocks or mold that is in the container with the liquid mixture. These seed crystals are what start the growth of your new crystal.

Growing the Crystals. The crystals start to grow on the rocks or mold very quickly, usually in just a few hours. My daughters loved checking their crystals and seeing them start to develop. They were so excited every time they found the first crystals that started to grow.

You continue to let the crystals grow for several days. Once they get near the surface of the liquid mixture, you pour this extra mixture into a container to save for growing more crystals another time. Then you remove the crystal from the container and set it out to dry. We always placed ours on some paper towel (to soak up any remaining liquid) on a plate.

The container you grew the crystal in usually has some crystals on it too. You can let these dry and then remove them and put them in a plastic bag to use as the seed crystals to grow another crystal.

Displaying Your Crystals. Once the crystal you grew dries, you can put it on one of the plastic display stands if you choose. In my opinion, the plastic display stands are flimsy and kind of tacky. My daughters chose not to use them. They liked to just set the crystals they made with the Smithsonian Crystal Growing Kit on their dressers and desks. They treasured each crystal they make and loved to show them to people.

Excellent Hands-On Learning. The hands-on learning the Smithsonian Crystal Growing Kit offered was the perfect addition to my daughters' study of crystals. They really enjoyed making the crystals. Being able to see the crystals and how the different kinds grew and developed in shape and size was so much better than just seeing pictures of crystals in a science book.

My Crystal Growing Tip. I highly recommend reading through all the instructions for growing a particular crystal before starting and then read through them step-by-step as you are do the crystal making project. This will help make sure you have everything ready and do every step correctly so you are sure to grow beautiful crystals.

Shop around for a good price before you buy. You can find Smithsonian Crystal Growing Kits in many online and regular stores.