I gave this to my 9 year old grandson for his birthday. The look on his face when he opened it said how much he liked it. We spent a lot of times looking at the prepared slides and he and his father were going to make more of their own thanks to the directions that explained how. As a retired teacher, I love the fact that I can give something educational as a present and still see all the joy that it brings. We were all impressed with the microscope and how easy it was to use.