I was recently given the “Let’s Explore: VR Headset for Kids with Oceans” to review and give my honest opinion on.  

I’m going to show you how my kids loved interacting with it, what comes with it, what kids and adults can learn by watching, and other uses for the VR goggles that come with it.

If you are interested in where to get yours now, you can buy here:

Let’s Explore: VR Headset for Kids with Oceans – A Virtual Reality Family Friendly Adventure to Swim with Whales, Sharks, and Encounter Polar Bears Through Augmented Reality, Smartphone Compatibility

This is a pricey item to give your kids as a gift – but it is something the whole family will enjoy and you can entertain many.  Plus you can use the VR goggles with other videos, which in my opinion makes the price worth it in the long run.

What do you get inside your Let’s Explore VR Oceans Kit?

• VR headset and carry case
• A hardcover book titled “Let’s Explore Oceans” where it has more information about ocean life that reinforces facts that are taught in the videos.
• The Holographic Explorer Cube
• A quick start guide

Here is the product description from Amazon:

• EXPLORE, DISCOVER & LEARN WITH LET’S EXPLORE OCEANS: Fully Immersive, 360 Degree, Virtual Reality, Educational Experience Headset. For Kids and Adults of all ages. Everything you need to explore the oceans without leaving your room – Comes Complete with Handy Carry Case, 36 page hardback book full of facts and a Holographic Explorer Cube. Family Friendly Educational Experiences for Ages 7+
• SO REAL YOU WILL BELIEVE YOU ARE ACTUALLY THERE: Dive into an immersive world of exploration and discovery. Swim with Humpback Whales and Sharks. Get up close with Polar Bears, learn about the impact of pollution in the deep sea, and much more with our free Downloadable App. Sea It All in 4 Thrilling Mini Movies. Watch Californian Sea Lions, Endangered Hawaiian Sea Turtles, Arctic Polar Bears & Florida Manatees to Open our Minds to the Wonderful World of the Oceans Below
• HOLD IN YOUR HANDS & LEARN: About Underwater Whales, Mammals & Sharks with 4 Incredible Augmented Reality Experiences: Learn All About Sharks & Whales And Take Pictures, Listen and sing along to Our Interactive Songs While Swimming Right Next To These Beautiful Sea Creatures
• 6 INCREDIBLE VIRTUAL REALITY ADVENTURES: The Valley of the Rays – Beautiful Sting Rays in their Mysterious Crystal Clear Water World. Shark Dive Into The Unknown to see Hammerheads and more. Swim With Humpback Whales. See Polar Bears Up Close in an Arctic Adventure. Plunge into the fantasy world with our Animated Mermaids Quest & Learn About the Creatures that Live in the Darkest Waters.
• VR/AR GOGGLES POWERED BY YOUR SMARTPHONE: Compatible with – Minimum version of Android Android 10 or above / 2GHz CPU or faster / 2GB Memory or more. Minimum version of iOS iPhone 8 with iOS 11 software or above. (Please remove your phone case when selecting VR mode)

When you open the box, under the hardcover book, there is an instruction manual that quickly tells you how to work the goggles. There is an option to use QR code to watch a short video on out how to set it up. You will need to download an app on your phone that will “scan” the Holographic Explorer Cube where you can select a video to watch. Once the video is showing on your phone, quickly snap your phone into the goggles and let the 3D Virtual Reality adventure begin!

There are different video options depending on the side of the cube you scan. It is WAY easier to pick the video using your phone, and then put your phone into the phone holder part of the goggles. I tried to scan the cube while my phone was in the goggles and it was very challenging to select what I wanted. So I suggest selecting using your phone while it is not attached to the goggles. But once you hit play, snap your phone into the goggles fast to watch from the very beginning.

The goggles are flat inside the carry case. You will have to pull out the silicone sides in order for them to be full size. There is an adjustment on them as well for focusing. Kids with smaller heads will need the lenses closer together for a clear and sharp view.

Here is my 8 year old trying to touch everything she is seeing! 🙂 I believe she is watching a whale video here. You can move your head all the way around and you will see fish, other “divers,” and oceanic wildlife – especially of the topic video you choose to watch.

Here is is looking up, down, and all around, and trying to touch what she sees. It really is a virtual reality experience where you can get lost and not know where you really are in a room after you look through the goggles for a long period of time.

Here she is quickly removing the goggles because she saw a shark swim by and that freaked her out a bit. That didn’t stop her though from still wanting to look.

My 12 year old had a bit of an advantage as she was sitting in a chair that swivels 360 degrees so she didn’t have to stand and move around. She just sat in the chair, looked up and down and spinned in the chair to see all she could.

Upon removing the goggles, she was super surprised what part of the room she was facing because she didn’t even realize how much she was spinning around while watching.

I tried to get my hands on it that day, buy my kids just kept begging for more. I did get to watch the humpback whale video, which I thought was incredible. It was also very educational, especially since we took our family vacation to Boston this year and went on a fabulous whale watch where we saw a whale breach, fin slaps, and many dives down so we could see their flukes!

If you are wondering if this is a gadget you’d like in your home – here are my lists of pros and cons that may help you decide if you want to buy a $100 entertainment item.

Pros: 

1.  It is a pretty darn cool experience to see a 3D movie with nothing around your eyes to distract you so that you are fully immersed! Especially since this is content filmed in the ocean, and not something we often (if ever) will experience in real life.

2.  We went on a whale watch this summer while on vacation in Boston/Plymouth.  Watching these educational videos in advance gave us some great facts about Whales.  We also visited the Aquarium in Boston. There was a touch tank there filled with sting rays and small sharks. So great to watch these videos after our visit to solidify some things we learned at the aquarium. Even though I’m a biology teacher, I still learned facts about how whales have 2 parts of their brain – one side goes to sleep at a time so it can still breath 24/7. I also learned about how sharks breath and why some species always want to be swimming forward.

3.  Even when you’ve watched all of the videos that come with this kit, you can watch hundreds of VR videos on Youtube, so that you’ll never be out of content to use your goggles with! There are some really cool roller coaster VR videos that are tons of fun to be immersed in!

4. If the VR part makes you dizzy or you feel motion sickness, you don’t have to watch the content with the goggles on. You can easily just watch the videos on your phone – but you just won’t get the 3D effect.

5. People of ANY age will love it! My in-laws loved it. My brother-in-law, who teaches Earth Science, uses these types of goggles in his class and says these will become more and more mainstream. I would have LOVED to have these in my biology classroom when I was still teaching in a public school. You can learn so much life science or biology by getting kids more fully engaged with a 3D experience.

6. If you are a homeschooling family who wants a fantastic tool to help teach in the sciences or STEM in general, I’d highly recommend it. I know many homeschooling families have a co-op where they do some classes together. This would be a great investment for the group to share. If you split the cost, it will make it super cheap to have one of these you can pass around family to family!

Cons:

1.  After that you are on your own and it is very challenging trying to navigate the videos. I recommend just using your phone to line up the cube and quickly choose a video or the cube will pick one for you and often repeat the same one. So pick a video, then quickly put the phone in the goggles.
2. I wish their were more videos to watch on the cube.  Each video is short, and while you may not watch them all in one sitting, you will go through them fairly quickly.  I hope that “Let’s Explore” has more cubes and topics in the works to learn from!  But as stated above, you can still use the goggles to watch videos on Youtube, so you will always get use out of those!
3. If you are suseptible to motion sickness, you may feel a bit nauseous or get a headache if you watch for too long.
4. I have an older iPhone and it ate up my phone battery very quickly. It also made my phone very hot. Maybe this isn’t the case with newer phones, but my old guy couldn’t be watched for very long before the battery died.
5. This is an expensive “toy.” The only way I can justify the price is if you are a VR junky and want to use the goggles with other videos you can find online. Or if you are a teacher of a homeschooling parent when you can use these as part of your curriculum. But if you just buy the kit for the few short Ocean videos, I have a feeling you won’t feel like you got your money’s worth.
6. I also had trouble with the video pausing and buffering at times. Maybe that was my internet? Maybe it was because I had an older phone? I’m not sure – but those pauses made viewing at times frustrating.
7. This is neither a pro or a con, but one more piece of advise: you may need to remove phone cover for phone to fit in the snap in portion of the goggles.

Overall our family has loved using it. It would be a big hit at birthday parties. Bring it to family events for extra entertainment, and take an evening to get lost in some virtual reality!

Where to buy:

Let’s Explore: VR Headset for Kids with Oceans – A Virtual Reality Family Friendly Adventure to Swim with Whales, Sharks, and Encounter Polar Bears Through Augmented Reality, Smartphone Compatibility