Pocket Microscope Review

I’ve shared before my children’s love of all bugs and creepy crawlies, they go for bug hunts in the garden and I’m forever finding creatures in their bug kits – sadly many have been there for days before I come across them tucked away on a shelf, new pets for the children who seem to forget that insects and bugs need food, water and air holes to survive.

This of course brings on the floods of tears when they finally remember or catch me removing them sneakily so they don’t see, trying my hardest not to recreate the emotional breakdown of February 2017 when Harry had a ‘pet slug’ and squeezed it a little too hard, or the floods of tears of 2015 when Emmy keep a ‘Mr Long Legs’ a pet spider in a matchbox a little too long.

One thing they have been asking to try for a long time is a Microscope, now I know my children and they lose things all the time or worse break them, so I wasn’t keen to start them off with an expensive full sized one but when Interplay recently sent them a Pocket Microscope they were over the moon with excitement.

Inside the box you’ll find:

• 1 illuminated pocket microscope
• 1 textile slide
• 1 Insect slide
• 3 Blank slides
• 4 Specimen jars
• 12 Specimen labels & clear covers
• 1 tweezers
• Colour instruction booklet

This is a perfect starter microscope for young children, small enough to fit in your pocket or in the kids case their backpacks ready for a nature walk. They are then able to collect their creatures in the specimen jars to either bring home or until we find a place to investigate further.

We also don’t have to wait until in the full light as this microscope has a light on it making it easier to see. It magnifies up to 30 times using precision optics.

The light automatically comes on when the microscope is unfolded.

Objects can be mounted onto the slides but it isn’t necessary. We found it far easier to place them onto white paper as they were clearer for the children.

There are 2 different slides in this set which are pre-mounted with different textiles – Nylon, Cotton, Silk and Wool, and the other has parts of a Grasshopper on it – Antenna, Leg, Abdomen and Wing. Both children were fascinated by these and it inspired them to use the microscope to inspect different objects around the house

Harry needed help to adjust the magnification on this as he just kept moving the dial around and then complaining he couldn’t see anything, Emmy needed a little help to start with however soon realised that she just had to slow down and move it very slowly and actually hold the microscope to her eye.

Disclaimer: We received this product in exchange for this post. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

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