Customer Reviews

All About Volcanoes

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My goodness, were we ever thrilled with this volcano kit in the beginning. The kit comes with a great poster-sized fold out on volcanoes, giving a graphic of a volcano, info on the different types of volcanoes, and a map of the world with the locations of volcanoes annotated. Very basic, but well done. Also included was a booklet with the instructions and even more information on volcanoes. Yes, by the time you bought this you have already read up on them, but there was a little more information than we had read in our Magic School Bus Inside the Earth or Magic School Bus Voyage to the Volcano (by the way, both pretty good for the under seven crowd).

I didn't think the plastic volcano form was cheap. I mean it IS plastic, but for $13.99, I didn't expect any more. In fact, I thought it was well thought out to make it easily and effectively painted by kids. The directions include painting tips, like using the included sponge to create the look of trees blending with barren areas. There are ridges and crevices in the right places to make it realistic. We thought it was hugely fun to paint and the end result was photoworthy.

Finally, it was time for the eruptions. We did take the advice given in the instructions and super-glued the legs on. Otherwise, they would have never stayed. But the eruptions themselves were pretty much DUDS! The kit says you can expect them to be anywhere from one to six feet high, but ours were nothing like that. Maybe ten inches for a few seconds, then just a constant ooze. I guess that was okay for our first volcanic eruption - Mauna Loa, but not Mt. St. Helens!

We tried some different formulations (more vinegar, adding corn syrup), but it really didn't make much difference. Too bad, because up till then it was a lot of fun.

The only good thing about this kit is that your child can get some joy out of painting a few volcanoes on a cheap plastic sheet. But the real promise of this kit--to see a model volcano erupt--may not be fulfilled. We followed all the steps and got tripped by a poorly designed base (above mentioned cheap plastic sheet) that is extremely difficult to balance on 4 ill-fitting stilts. A poor experience for the kids. The eruption was more of a fizzle. Waste of money and time.