Chemistry set for almost 5 year old

[lostlalaloopsy]

My ds will be 5 in January. He has been asking for a science lab for Christmas. Not quite sure where to start with this.

Any ideas?

I think this might defeat the point, but we have had more success with books than kits. I'm not in the UK, but we've got something like this which has all sorts of short things in. Yes, the normal bicarb volcanoes etc, but also how yeast works to make bread and ginger beer etc. If you got it in time to then go shopping for all the things you need to carry out the experiments????
Kits for younger kids all seem to be bicarb/ginger volcanoes or bottle cars.

Kids have also had loads if fun from a bug hunting out (with magnifiers and tweezers), and a microscope - tho that has mainly been the 7 year old.

A "science lab" does not necessarily equate to a chemistry set. Most chemistry sets you can find will be 8+ or 10+ and even then will just be "kitchen science" kind of stuff you can easily do yourself.

How about a microscope? Bug collection? Butterfly kit?

If you specifically want to do chemistry then I'd look to buy a white cost, safety specs and then get youtubing and finding some cool stuff you can do with him.

They've got loads of different science kit/chemistry lab sets in hobby craft.

Brightminds have loads of nice kits.

Have a look at the science museum online for a appropriate science kits!

Kosmos do a lot of science kits.

Science museum do lots of small kits. I would also highly recommend a subscription to Whizz Pop Bang - it's a brilliant science magazine for children and has loads of experiments you can do with household equipment. We had it for about a yr and my 8 yr old loves it!

Thanks for the great suggestions! Ds has visions of being a mad scientist so these will be great!

The'don't eat your slime' book is good and has loads of ideas for completing at home experiments