The Award Winning Bug Viewer($39.95 for ages 5 and up)

Winner of a Parent’s Choice Recommended award, this is the talking children’s microscope that teaches young entomologists about insects and arthropods. Ideal for introducing children to scientific observation, the microscope includes 12 prepared, enclosed slides that are each detected when placed under the scope’s objective lens. While observing a slide at 5X magnification with the aid of an integrated light, the microscope’s internal speaker narrates a series of 120 facts (10 per creature) as a child turns a knob: “Did you know worker bees sting only once?” A follow-up electronic quiz challenges youngsters to remember what they’ve learned.