Last week two boxes of science resources arrived from Nonno (grandfather in Italian). It’s pretty handy to home school and have a father-in-law that teaches high school biology. Anyhow, we unpacked and checked them out momentarily, but just yesterday we set it all up.

My youngest has a lot of career plans including paleontologist, artist, police officer, and more. He does have a real love of the natural world and we are always grabbing him when we see animals, interesting plants or rocks, or just anything new. Yesterday he looked through every single slide we have from plants and insects, enjoying all the microscope images (from a previous microscope set, also from Nonno and Nonna.) He loved seeing the bee wings, bee legs, stem cross sections, and more. Each had it’s own declaration, “look at this one, it’s like a canyon,” and such. Both boys enjoyed looking and comparing.

To me, the vintage microscope might be just as beautiful as the microscope images themselves. It’s extremely well-built and will be with us for many years of exploration. I’m thrilled Nonno found this educational treasure to share.

For an all-inclusive microscope set, Nonno sent Micro Science Student Microscope a few years ago. It’s inclusive case, tools, and slides are very handy. However, I was really surprised by how much easier to use our vintage microscope is, requiring no batteries and focusing easily. Still, if you cannot stumble into a vintage microscope, the above mentioned set has all your little nature explorer could need.