Exploratopia contains more than 400 kid-friendly experiments and explorations on 373 very colorful pages. It includes an Introduction, "Hints, Tips and Answers," and an Index. The book's three sections are entitled "Exploring Yourself," "Exploring Interesting Places," and "Exploring Interesting Stuff." The experiments cover a variety of topics, such as Your Ears, Your Hands, Your Brain, Language, Music, Math, and Optical Illusions. The activities are gathered from the Exploratorium, which is a museum of exploration in San Francisco, California.

Each experiment provides simple, direct instructions and a list of necessary materials, usually simple-to-find household items. Activities are broken down into "What You Need," "Here's What You Do," and "What's Going On?" There are pictures, drawings, and diagrams to help you complete each task. Generally speaking, there should not be anything more that you need, although access to a library or other research materials for further exploration would be a plus.

The author simply says in the Introduction, "I put together this book to help you see the world as a place to explore and experiment." It is intended to help any student, of any age, reach out for information and explore the world. With guidance, even preschoolers would enjoy many of the activities; early elementary students will tackle many of the tasks with minimal guidance from an adult; and elementary readers will be able to complete many of the explorations independently. Every imaginable homeschooling approach could utilize this book, whether it be notebook, unit studies, or textbook. Also, the inherent sensory involvement will be wonderful for various learning styles, and you can even choose activities according to the preferred style of each individual child. Although Exploratopia was not specifically designed for homeschool students, it certainly lends itself to the flexibility we enjoy. And it provides a wonderful way to entice our students into the fun of learning science.

The book is visually inviting. Most students will welcome the opportunity to flip through it. The activities are to the point, yet the content is highly educational. We have a wide range of ages in our homeschool (age 7 to 20), and all of the students found something that interested them. I look forward to using this book in coming years with our younger children who were not ready for this information. This book will be a handy way to introduce many science subject areas.

Before beginning the experiments (or certainly before handing the book over to an older student), you will want to review the content to see if there is anything that conflicts with your personal beliefs. We did not find any evolutionary content (millions of years, etc.). However, one activity did encourage the student to lie to other participants. The book justified this by saying, "You're telling a whopper in the name of science, so it's okay." We found this unnecessary. Our children could certainly learn the educational lesson without resorting to lies. In this instance, you could simply modify the activity or skip it.

Also, I do wish that this book had placed more emphasis on documenting facts learned. Though the activities often listed notebook paper and pen as necessary materials, it was not consistently recommended that the student track the responses or data in a scientific manner. There were some charts for the student to copy and flesh out with additional details, but we would like to have seen more of that sort of thing.

Despite the above-mentioned downsides, I do recommend this book. It has a great deal of interesting and little-known material that may be just the "nudge" that is needed to produce our next great Newton or Pascal. Also, the book is nice in that it gives your children access to these experiments without requiring the use of the Exploratorium website, which might expose them to information you do not find agreeable.

I would definitely purchase this book, particularly because, like many homeschoolers, I sometimes worry that we will come up short in the area of science. These experiments and activities will easily open children's eyes to the many possibilities and curiosities around them. I believe parents will be able to use this book to point their children to our Creator God, even if it was not meant to be used from a Biblical standpoint.

Product review by Donna Campos, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, March 2007