GU Comics: "Never Tell"
Posted: Saturday January 17th, 2015
by
I recently received Cooper & Kid's "The Science of Magic" kit for #review. It's like LootCrate, but instead a few really cool little baubles that look awesome collecting dust on my swag shelf, it's four times the size and is loaded bottom to top with projects, experiments, and goodies designed to entertain theBoy and myself for hours on end.
Now, as much as I would like to have had the kiddo there for the unboxing, I needed a controlled environment. And, I'm not certain I could have contained his excitement as I pulled out all manner of things that we would then need to wait to try out. So, I sat down alone to inspect the kit. I opened the box, covered in green, magically themed decoration, to find blackness within. That's not just froofy writer banter, the inside of the box was literally black, and the contents were wrapped in black tissue paper. I had to peel Cooper & Kid seals and fold back layers of the tissue paper to get at the goodies inside. It was a brilliantly orchestrated tease, fuel for the fires of my interest and wonder. It was, in a word, marvelous. A magic wand here, a lesson plan booklet there, a paper mache wizard book -itself filled with potion vials and packets of safe yet science-y materials, an electrostatic "Fly Stick", a mini recipe book... on and on it went. In the end, it took me a good hour to unbox and organize everything.
I read through the handful of nicely designed leaflets unsure of what usually comes in the box and what was there just for reviewer purposes. Then I read through the lesson plan - "The Wizard's Magic Manual" - twice, and thumbed through the "Wizard's Cookbook".Cooper & Kid had also set up an account for me with access to an online resource page designed to assist with the lessons, expand on certain concepts, demonstrate some of the trickier experiments, etc. As I combed through the manual a third time, I realized Cooper & Kid had included almost everything we would need to complete the lessons associated with their "Three Branches of Magic": Brain-Warping (Neuroscience), Kinetic Power (Physics), and Alchemy (Chemistry). All I ended up needing to bring to the table was scissors, tape, crayons, a plate, a glass, a dime and a funnel to help get some of those science-y ingredients into their associated potion vials.
We'd been planning to spread the Levels (lessons) across three days, but the Holidays and then the process of returning to school after the Holidays threw a wrench in the works. Ultimately, we had to burn through all three levels in one day. I spent a couple of hours before hand, preparing the few things theBoy couldn't really, safely help me with, then we marathon-ed it from 4:30 -through dinner (a recipe from the Wizard's Cookbook)- to bath time at 7:00. Now, that's not ideal but it does say something about this kit. TheBoy, who wrestles with ADHD, sat there with me learning and playing, showing magic tricks to his mom and baby sister for hours. No time to get bored, no inclination to wander off. That's not just an accomplishment; that's stunning.
I won't tell you everything we did or this wall of text will grow to novella proportions. What I will say is that with Cooper & Kid's "The Science of Magic" kit we made things appear AND disappear. We defied gravity (seemingly). Produced potions that changed colors and others that bubbled and frothed. Ate magical food. Drank magical concoctions. We even invented our own magical word: Abra-Ca-Pizza!
["The Science of Magic" pictures available on GU's Instagram Account]
I'm hard pressed to find any fault with this kit and am completely unwilling end this review without giving it a strong "Try this!" recommendation. Sure, it wasn't without the occasional, exceedingly minor flaw, but it was an overwhelmingly positive experience. If you're a dad looking for an excuse to play with your kids or just looking for a new tool to add to your already awesome repertoire, give these kits a look. They're delivered quarterly and where they might seem a bit pricey, they're easily worth what's in the box.
Linkables:
http://cooperandkid.com
http://facebook.com/CooperAndKid
http://twitter.com/CooperandKid
[This is not a paid review.]
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