Cool Science for Kids: Little BLAST Science Kit Giveaway

This post is sponsored by little BLAST- an early education science activities series.

If you are a regular Toddler Approved reader, you know I love finding cool science activities to do with my kids. I even collect and store ideas I try (or want to try) on my Cool Science Ideas Pinterest board.

A month or so ago I was introduced to little BLAST, a monthly science & math subscription kit company created by two moms- Victoria & Jen (an engineer and an elementary school teacher) and I have been so excited to tell you more about them and their cool kits!

I love science as a mom mostly because of what I've learned helping at my son's preschool and browsing Pinterest. I didn't enjoy science growing up or love my science teachers. I am hoping to change that with my kids. Little BLAST kits make it super easy for me to introduce science in fun ways to my kids without having to stress about materials or planning.

This month the little BLAST company sent me their Lubricant BLAST (science kit) to try out. 

Make sure to scroll down to enter our Little BLAST giveaway!

Each kit created by little BLAST is called a "BLAST" and is centered around a specific theme. The kit themes change monthly and each kit contains 3-4 activities.

As a busy mom I constantly feel a little bit frazzled. My creativity can get stifled when my house is a disaster, I am underslept, and my kids are demanding my attention... and something fun to do. I like to have a few easy things to pull out on those sort of days. Our little BLAST science kit worked perfectly!

When our little BLAST box arrived one thing I loved about it was that we could just dive right in and start exploring! My daughter would not wait one more second once I started pulling things out of the box... and then we had to do several of the projects again once her big brother got home from school because she enjoyed them so much.

The little BLAST directions were visual and clearly written. I could skim through the intro and directions and then hold the cards for each activity while we got started as my "cheat sheet" when the kids asked me questions. 

The BLAST kit came with a little game board called an "Adventure Map" to help my kids move through all of the activities and find a special treasure once they were done.

I thought it was an adorable idea for a little schedule, but the Lubricant BLAST was so exciting to my kids that they didn't want to be bothered with anything EXCEPT the science experiments.

Our favorite activity in the Lubricants BLAST was the one that taught the kids about measuring viscosity. I learned a lot too!

Before we got started I needed to look up the definition of viscosity so that I could explain it to my kids easily. Basically it relates to the thickness of a liquid.

Each activity in the BLAST kit came with all of the materials that we would need to complete our assignment. 

For the Measuring Viscosity activity we got... 

• an instruction sheet
• 4 test tubes in a rack (two pre-filled with a liquid) 
• marbles 
• a pencil 
• a worksheet
• a timer

Our job for the Measuring Viscosity activity was to drop three marbles into three different test tubes filled with three different materials and see which liquid had a higher viscosity (ie. which one was thicker).

One test tube came pre-filled with corn syrup and one came pre-filled with dish soap. We filled a third one with water. 

As we dropped each marble we noted how long it took to get to the bottom on the liquid. The fastest one had the lowest viscosity, the thickest one had the highest viscosity.

We did this marble viscosity activity more than a dozen times with my kids (ages 6, 3, and 1). Even my 17-month-old wanted a turn to drop the marbles into the different liquids. The kids really enjoyed hypothesizing about which liquid would be thicker and which would be thinner and let the marble travel faster.

One of my favorite things about the activities were the info cards included at the end that explained the experiment in simple terms and the results you should have experienced. 

I liked using the info cards as my "cheat sheet" to make sure we were doing the experiments correctly and so that my explanations made sense when we talked about our findings together. Science is not my forte... so I loved the quick help.

The Lubricants Blast came with four activities...

1. Reducing noise

2. Moving cubes

3. Can you make it move?

4. Exploring viscosity

Things we loved about our little BLAST science kit...

• Everything we needed came in the box right to our door
• All of the materials were well organized and labeled so we could find them quickly
• We learned new vocabulary words and were introduced to new science concepts 
• We snuck in some math learning without realizing it (graphing, counting, reading numbers)
• We enjoyed working together as a family (little BLAST kits require adult supervision for all activities)
• We got a few new science tools, like test tubes and a holder (we already had one set and now each kid gets one, we were excited!)

Things we wish our little BLAST science kit had included...

• Information on how we can tie what we learned about Lubricants into our every day life. For example, Why is it important or helpful for kids to know about viscosity or lubricants?
• A little metal ring or a pouch to keep all of our info sheets together and organized
• Links of info about additional suggested activities to try to help teach or reinforce the concepts we learned in the BLAST. I noticed a few days after we finished the activities that the little BLAST blog features some additional themed activities that relate to the kit, so now I know to check there!
• A vocabulary cheat sheet for the adults featuring simple definitions we can use when explaining tougher terms to the little kids 🙂 I need all the help I can get!

Little BLAST kits are for preschoolers and kids in the early elementary grades. All activities require adult supervision! They make great gifts and are perfect for playdates, family nights,... or even just when your child is bored and you don't want him turning on the TV. 

I can't wait to see what other cools things Victoria & Jen (little BLAST founders) come up with next!

The little BLAST blog is a great resource for science activities. Here are nine of my favorite cool science activities you could try from their site if you have some free time.

Click on the links below for full instructions...

Magnetic Slime

Magnet Painting

Sliding Disks

Exploring Liquid Densities

Dancing Raisins

Floating and Sinking Balloons

Constructing Shapes

Sensory Snow Play

Float & Sink Fruit Collage

You can also find little BLAST on Facebook and Pinterest.

I am so excited that we get to give away a Lubricant BLAST to one of our Toddler Approved readers today!

Giveaway

Enter to win your own Lubricants BLAST from little BLAST. It includes 4 activities.

Giveaway Entry Requirements:

• Make sure to fill in the Rafflecopter giveaway entry below and complete the mandatory email entry.
• You can get up to six entries by completing all tasks mentioned in the Rafflecopter form below. Some earn you more entries than others.

Entry Guidelines:

• This giveaway is open for entry from Wednesday, March 26th to Wednesday, April 2nd at 12:00am (PST)
• The winning entry will be drawn on Wednesday, April 2nd. I will notify the winner via email.
• The winner will need to reply to me within 72 hours of my email. If there is no response, a new winner will be drawn.
• See our Official Giveaway Rules for complete guidelines. US Residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This review of the little BLAST science kit shares my opinion. You may have a different one. All sponsored content, paid or not, features only products that we would purchase ourselves.