Thanks to My First Lab for sending along products for review. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

The next time you go on a hike with your kids, I would recommend taking along a Microscope for the journey. Does that sound odd? Or at the very least, impractical? Well, you can actually now get a very compact, lightweight, high-resolution digital microscope that can fit in your pocket, right next to your smartphone.

We recently used this Smartphone Inspector (priced at just $12.99, by the way!) and checked out ant hills, rocks, leaves, moss and all sorts of other completely awesome stuff that we were able to view in a totally new way. We even brought some specimens back to our room for further inspection on the iPad, which this device will also work with, seamlessly. I think this is one of the absolute coolest items on the market to give to curious little explorers! We love having ours and take it with us on our travels.

If you’d like to have something a little more traditional, we have also really enjoyed the Duo-Scope Starter Kit, which is also very reasonably priced at just $29.99 (for a microscope with accessories!). We have been working a bit with Darah on learning how to use this microscope and properly care for it. It is a fantastic addition to our homeschool curriculum and so perfect as a first (real) microscope. We have already been checking out the yeast specimen included in the kit and the other slides included have been viewed, as well. I love that this entire kit is CPSIA approved. What a great addition for homeschoolers or a great supplemental resource for anyone!

Definitely check out these two very useful and intriguing gifts that will bring out the little scientist in your child!