We've been all over the place on what to get Peyton for his 9th birthday. I was thinking of a dirt bike or dune buggy, but finally agreed with my wife that he's too young for this. It's not just his age, but the knowledge of who he is and what we realize will probably happen.
Since that decision, we've been bouncing off ideas of what to get him. A few weeks ago, I came up with the idea of a microscope. Steph thought it was a foolish idea, but I really liked it. I did some research on them and found Amazon.com to be very helpful with the reviews of different brands.
Amazon.com: My First Lab Microscope: Office Products
This is the model that I wanted, so then I did a search for it on Ebay. I found it there for $37 less. I boughti it there and received it this week.
Peyton opened it yesterday with his other gifts and was very excited to try it out. Since then, he's spent all his free time looking through it, hunting for new things to look at and creating slides. Steph found some sample slides, blank slides and all sorts of assesories for it.
We've looked at dozens and dozens of things, but found Rotifer in some water from the bird bath to be the most interesting. Searches online have shown detailed descriptions of them. What's really cool is that you can see right through them and their internal organs moving around. It's very interesting and fun to see!!!
In case somebody else is wondering about a neat gift for their kids, I wanted to recomend this to you. It's of a good quality with very clear lenses. It has 4x, 10x and 40x. The controls are precise and easy to use. The light is bright and there is a wheel that allows you to change the amount of light that comes through for brighter or dimmer viewings. It even came with an extra bulb.
Eddie
Microscope for Peyton's Birthday 
Linear Mode
