What magnification does a kid actually need?

Specialist subreddit consensus (notably r/microscopy threads in the data) is that advertised numbers like 1200x or 2000x on cheap kids' scopes are largely marketing — the optics can't resolve real detail at those levels. For meaningful biology work, reviewers repeatedly recommend a genuine 40x-400x or 40x-1000x compound scope with glass objectives. For looking at bugs, rocks and leaves, lower magnification (around 40x-100x) is more useful and easier for young kids to focus.