Exploring Stars

We received the Exploring Stars crate as part of our monthly subscription. My kids enjoyed all the activities. Unfortunately, I have to downgrade this crate due to scientific inaccuracy. When the orrery is in motion with the earth orbiting counter-clockwise around the sun, the rotation of the earth on its axis and the orbit of the moon around the earth are in the wrong direction. I hope that KiwiCo redesigns this crate so that the model is more accurate.

The model for how the Sun, Earth, and Stars move around each other was priceless. The stickers of green land to put on the Earth did not stay on. The tape to hold the wooden apparatus to the base was not strong enough or effective enough. The other craft, the lamp, was a hit. Just make sure you don't put stars around the edge or they will get covered up when placed into the lamp. We did not try the outdoor sun oven yet - you need supplies from around your house like aluminum foil, marshmallows, chocolate, graham crackers, etc. We did not have those supplies at that time and we are gluten free which makes getting those supplies more difficult, so we just never came back to it. I suggest you get those supplies in advance so you won't miss out on all the fun.

My son and I had a lot of fun building the latern and making the outdoor oven (we are still using it)! We lost earth, the moon and the sun within the first 2 hours of building the solar system.

This was an incredibly well composed crate. My daughter enjoyed making her own constellations for the latern. Making the orbiting sun, moon and Earth was very easy for her to do.

We enjoyed making the lantern, 5 stars, but the spinning earth required me to have to explain that the earth would rotate too, which went over her head, and the light in the “sun” died quickly and wouldn’t stand up - 2 stars.

Great idea - my daughter and i had a great time putting it together