The directions for this were confusing and seemed to leave important details out. My husband and I, who both passed plenty of science classes, weren't really sure what to do, so I wouldn't recommend this for a child that your hoping will be excited instead of frustrated. The crystals themselves turned out very poorly and they made the glass jar so cloudy that we couldn't see the crystals anyway. I suspect some of this has to do with the fact that we weren't sure which way the "crystal seeds" were supposed to sit in the glass (crystal seeds were really more of a dome shaped bathfizz looking object than anything that resembles "seeds" - at the very least, couldn't they come up with a better, more scientific name - considering the idea of a seed doesn't really match with rocks....). Presumably the dome is supposed to sit flatly on the bottom, but this was hard to achieve as you are instructed to drop it into very hot water (so it's not like you can just stick your fingers in there even if you were using a glass big enough for it to fit), and we didn't have any kind of tongs ready. In our case the dome fell in upside down (flat part up), but husband was sure it didn't matter - directions were unhelpful in clarifying, so we went with it, thinking that if it was important, than they would have said so. Crystals turned out very non-crystal looking (mostly just looked like a bad build up of lime from the dishwasher) - not sure if it's because of product or misunderstanding of directions, but either way, I would not buy this again.

I bought this for my 6 year old for christmas. She loves rocks. We followed the short instructions and waited almost 2 weeks. It looked really good, but when it came to getting it out of the cup, it wouldn't budge. I managed to pry it out and as it dried it lost a lot of color. After it was done drying anytime it was touched it would break off into tiny pieces. We bought a second kit as well and are not looking forward to doing it since this one was so crappy.

I bought a bunch of these at Christmas to give to my nieces as gifts. I even bought one for my self to test it out. I have to say they are pretty cool 😎. The directions were easy to follow and it was fun to see how everyday that had passed the crystals would form more and more. The crystals that "grow" are not real crystals that you find in mother nature, but I think it's a fun science experiment that anyone could enjoy. It even comes with a real cluster of the same crystal that you are growing. I'm going to by diffrent ones of each kind.

It worked ok. It said to use a glass jar for the experiment, but we couldn't get it out of the glass jar and ended up throwing the whole thing out. This was our second try at it. The first was another brand that didn't do well at all. This one was better, but we won't be trying it again. If we did, I'd suggest using a solo cup instead of a glass jar.

The crystals are still growing and everything is happening as advertised. Don't know how large they'll get, but already nicely sized and well defined.

I ordered the clear color because from the description of the colored ones, I was concerned that the solution was so intensely colored it would obscure the crystals during their growth, and watching them grow every day is a big part of the experience, inspiring curiosity about how they can grow while keeping their characteristic geometry.

In any case, the clear ones are growing well and have the advantage of looking like the clear quartz crystals in the included rock sample (and from geodes we cracked, also from Amazon), yet having a different geometry, illustrating that similar crystals can grow in different environments and over dramatically different time scales, look similar, yet differ in detailed shape.

I don't know how big they'll grow, or whether we'll be able to get them out of the solution intact for long-term display.

We are getting just the results expected, and are quite pleased.