For his 9th birthday my son was given some really exciting presents. One of his favourites has to be the Galt set of horrible science explosive experiments. Although the set is recommended for children over 10, I think it is suitable for younger children with adult supervision.

The set comes in a brightly coloured box that wets your appetite for what's to come!

The box contains a plastic rocket ( in parts for you to assemble) sand,safty goggles, chemicals sodium hydrogen carbonate and sodium tetrabonate,red and green food colouring, mixing pots, plastic volcano shape and a 32 page instruction booklet known as the secret lab notebook. There is a short list of extra things you will need to complete the 6 experiments. These are everyday basic things such as malt vinegar (for the volcano) a tire pump (to launch the rocket) vegetable oil extra food colourings, and bicarbonate of soda.

Before beginning it is recommended you read the basic safety advice in the front of the instruction booklet. These are obvious things such as wear the protective goggles, don't eat when doing an experiment and wash your hands well after handling chemicals.

The kit has 6 experiments for you to try-

Fire a rocket.
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This was a very successful experiment and great fun too! The rocket will first need to be assembled with adult help for younger children. Assembly was really easy even for someone like me who is hopeless at model making! Once assembled the rocket will need to be taken outside ready for its launch. The base is filled with water and the tire pump attached to the rocket. Pump for a few minutes and the rocket will take off into the air soaking all around as it goes! This experiment was a real hit. The rocket did sustain a bit of damage to the cone but it continued to work through numerous launches! It is still in working condition several months later, although the weather has prevented my young scientist's helper (me) from venturing outside to launch!

The erupting volcano.
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This is a simple experiment but also great fun! First create a volcanic landscape by placing the sand provided onto a tray. Place the plastic volcano onto the sand and fill ¾ full with vinegar. Quickly add a teaspoon of sodium carbonate and screw on the cap provided. The volcano will erupt sending a frothy mass into the air. We have tried this experiment several times and the height of the eruption has varied depending on how much sodium carbonate we used. For a really exciting effect you could add a bit of red food dye!

Green snot.
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This experiment will appeal to most children as it is really revolting! All you do with this is to mix the provided snot power to some warm water in the pot provided. The more you handle the mixture the gooier and snot like it becomes! This stuff also smells vile if you leave it for any length of time! There are some revolting snot facts to entertain you contained in the lab note book. Suffice it to say it should help put your child off picking their nose and then putting it into their mouth!

Lava lamp.
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This was another very simple but effective experiment. It consists of different colours merging together in water and oil. The effect is quite pretty to watch but my son soon became bored with this one!

Water fireworks.
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We had been expecting some sort of amazing colourful display with a wow factor! However this was probably a bit naïve! This experiment was ok but like the lava lamp soon lost its appeal and hasn't been repeated. It basically involves green and red colours in water mixing together to give a firework effect.

The final experiment is the fizz bomb .This involves mixing sodium bicarbonate, water and vinegar together. The result is a lot of fizzing, hissing and popping! This one is good fun.

Overall I think this set makes a great present, especially for children from about 9. The instruction booklet is clearly written so experiments are easy to do. There are lots of cool facts too and explanations of why scientific reactions happen. My son has not only had fun with science but has learnt a lot too! As adult supervision is required for younger children, this is also a great present to get parents and children interact.

The set is widely available from retailers such as John Lewis (£15.95), Amazon (£16.99) and Debenhams (£16.00). It is worth shopping around to get the best price.