Today, we are reviewing the MEL Kids Science Kit “Cave Sound” subscription box.
The MEL Kids Science Kit subscription sends you monthly science kits that are great for kids ages 5-10. You’ll get a new lesson each month, with a hands-on experiment, a building set, educational comics, brain teasers, and coloring pages.
Price: $24.90 per month
Ships to: US
Shipping: FREE
We received this box for review purposes.
MEL Kids Science Kit “Cave Sound” Review
The MEL Kids Science Kit arrived in colorful box decorated with cartoon dinosaurs. This is the first kids subscription box that I've seen with a colorful cartoon on the outside fo the box.
Here is our first peek into the box!
The back of the box tells us more about what's inside this “Cave Sound” science kit. This kit will allow my kids to assemble a real music box (awesome!), explore the nature of sound, and compose their own melodies. The scientific concepts that will be learned include how sound is created, the unexpected uses of sound, and the difference between loud and quiet, and high-pitched and low-pitched.
Here is a view of everything we saw once we lifted the activity booklet.
The activity booklet is quite substantial in weight. It is filled with full color comics and the instructions you need to assemble this music box.
Here's a look at all of the components this box contains to build the music box.
And you can see how detailed and educational the comics are. There were probably about 20 pages of educational comics in this book!
Here's a view of the instructions. What I loved about the instructions is everything was detailed in pictures – perfect for spatial reasoning and a lot faster than having read line by line instructions.
Next are the assembly pieces that we got in this kit.
These components are made of either high quality lightweight wood, metal, paper, or rubber.
Here's a view of more of the pre-cut wooden pieces.
Now, let's get on to the assembly!
My 8-year old son was happy to work on this project. I also love that it wasn't a screen-based activity!
For the most part, my son could fit the wooden pieces together, but in some cases he did need my help.
My son loves to build and create, so this was a great project for him.
You can see the music box coming together now. I really like how there was a dragon theme on the wooden pieces of this music box.
Rubber bands were used to create tension on the wooden tines that will hit the metal pieces that will make the music box sounds.
Here's a close look at the metal tiles that will create music!
The wooden slotted platform was used to insert the cardboard paper at different intervals – this creates the melody and my son enjoyed making different patterns on this board.
To make the music, or cave sound in this case, the crank on the right is turned to feed the wooden platform through. When the cardboard hits the wooden tines, the top of the tines hit the metal tiles, thereby creating musical notes!
Here's a view from the front side of the music box.
And here is a side view.
I am a huge fan of subscription box creations where kids can use them for a while. This cave sound music box is one that my son will keep in his room for quite a while!
I really loved how my son could see the inner workings of how a real music box really works. I mean, who wouldn't love that? And, he created this music box (mostly) by himself!
Learning and encourage interest in scientific concepts is important at a young age. MEL Kids made this science kit fun for my 8-year old son to build a real music box that creates sound and music. The comic book and visual instructions were really easy to follow. I especially loved how this helped my son and I spend some quality time together all while helping him learn about science, sound, and movement all at once!
Mel Kids Science Kits
The Mel Kids Science Kit subscription sends you monthly science kits that are great for kids ages 5-10. Youll get a new lesson each month, with a hands-on experiment, a building set, educational comics, brain teasers, and coloring pages.
