Any suggestions for science and nature-style presents?

[ICutMyFootOnOccamsRazor]

Following on from the thread asking about having a MN science topic here, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or recommendations for good science presents, either for children or for me adults?

Last year I gave ds one of those dinosaur skeletons embedded in a fake rock that you have to 'excavate', which he loved.

This year I was wondering about a microscope, but any experience of which ones are decent but not too fiddly would be great.

No experience with specific microscopes, but loved mine as a child. important to have a range of magnifications so you can see different levels of detail. How old is your dc? Other things ds1 (4) has enjoyed are a bug viewer (plastic box with magnifying viewport to observe captured crawlies) and a book/box of kitchen experiments,

How about a membership to the science museum or natural history museum (if you're close enough) or a home science experiment book?

I think the butterfly growing kit is pretty cool.

here

I have got (new from eBay) for a nephew a bug viewer. It has headphones so he can hear the noises they make and a magnifier. Knowing him, he'll love it. I've also got him a book on spiders (a particular fascination for him - he's 8) to go with it.

Oh, I loved my microscope when I was a child.

I was also given/loved:

A circuit board
A book of home experiments
A chemistry set
A pond dipping kit
Something that projected the constellations (accurately) onto the ceiling

And I would have loved a telescope, but obviously they're very expensive. Can't wait for DS to be old enough for this stuff :)

Science Museum and Natural History Museum are both free so not sure what a membership would entail tbh. If you're close enough though the NHM does sleepovers for older kids (and an adult to go with them). You get an 'after dark' tour and stuff and you get to sleep by the diplodocus. If he's in to dinosaurs it could be a fantastic present, here

...Binoculars for Bird Watching,maybe...my husband loves to watch the birds.
Also, Ant Farms and their colonies are interesting to watch.Audubon Nature
Books are very pretty and informative.

Ds will be almost 5 this Christmas and sadly not yet old enough for the NHM sleepovers, Holy Autumn (I think they have to be 8). Can't wait to take him on one of those, they sound fab!

We have a telescope that we bought secondhand very inexpensively, Termagant. Check Gumtree - they seem to be one of those things that people buy and get rid of pretty often as they don't use them. He likes it but at the moment mostly uses it to play pirates .

He does have a bug viewer but nothing nearly as fancy as one with headphones , that sounds brilliant! MamaChocoholic do you know the name of your kitchen experiments book? I'd like to get something like that.

We are all pretty well binoculared up. I agree with you Japple that they're definitely an essential bit of kit. I keep hoping that someone will get me some waterproof, image-stabilising ones, but no luck so far. Might put an Audobon Nature Book on my list, though.

I've seen those butterfly growing kits, Titsalina, and wondered if they actually work, cos they look like really good presents, but we tend to go low-tech and raise caterpillars in a terrarium (which turns into an aquarium for tadpoles).

Toys are us sell wormeries - you can see the tunnels they make etc.

The Science museum have an online shop if this helps for ideas

www.sciencemuseumshop.co.uk/?source=scd#4

For adults there are some good bits of homewhere made from lab equipment, things like salt and pepper shakers, or oil and vinegar sets. You can get them from the science museum shop.

Or pretty much anything from Think Geek.