Dr. Amanda Foster

Finding the right hands-on learning activity for your child can feel like a guessing game. I have spent months testing KiwiCo crates with kids across multiple age groups, and the difference between a crate that sparks curiosity and one that collects dust comes down to matching the right kit to the right developmental stage. KiwiCo … Read more

I spent three months testing science kits with my 2-year-old niece and 4-year-old nephew to find the best science subscription boxes for toddlers. As a former preschool educator with a background in early childhood development, I have watched hundreds of kids light up during hands-on experiments. Science subscription boxes for toddlers deliver age-appropriate experiments, materials, … Read more

Teenagers today are growing up in a world where understanding science and technology is no longer optional. The best STEM subscription boxes for teens make hands-on learning feel like play rather than homework, with coding projects, robotics builds, and real electronics experiments delivered straight to your door. I spent weeks comparing ten of the most … Read more

Picking the right homeschool science curriculum kits can feel like decoding a foreign language. I have spent hours buried in spreadsheets comparing publishers, paging through sample lessons, and watching my own kids’ eyes glaze over or light up when we tried different programs. After three months of testing twelve homeschool science curriculum kits across grade … Read more

I have spent the last three months testing science kits with my two kids (ages 6 and 9), and I have a confession: most of the kits under $15 at big-box stores are basically bath-bomb factories in disguise. When parents ask me for the best science kits for kids under $50, I take it seriously. … Read more

When my daughter turned eight, I spent two weeks testing every science kit I could find to find the best all-in-one science kits with 100+ experiments. What I discovered surprised me: many kits advertising 100+ experiments actually include only 15-20 included materials and rely on a bonus guide with household items to hit the magic … Read more

When my daughter brought home a fist-sized chunk of granite and declared she wanted to be a geologist, I realized our kitchen table was about to become a laboratory. Finding the right earth science kits for kids changed everything about how she learned. Instead of reading about volcanoes in a textbook, she was building them … Read more

Finding the right physics kits for middle school students can feel like solving a physics problem itself. We tested 10 kits over three months with our own kids and a local homeschool group to see which ones actually teach concepts, not just entertain. Our team looked at everything from electricity and magnetism to mechanics and … Read more

Getting kids away from screens and into hands-on building is one of the hardest challenges parents face today. I have spent months testing engineering kits with my own kids and with groups of students ranging from ages 5 to 14, watching which ones actually hold attention and which end up collecting dust. Engineering kits for … Read more

When I first heard about MEL Science subscription boxes, I was skeptical. Could a monthly delivery really hold a curious 10-year-old’s attention for an entire year? After two months of testing with my own kids and comparing 10 of the most popular chemistry and STEM kits on the market, I have a clear answer: yes, … Read more