I lay in bed yesterday morning pondering what science experiment we would do later in the day. The kids are on Spring Break. I have to admit that my pondering did not get very far before I fell back to sleep. I was woken a few minutes later by my son asking me if he could open one of his birthday gifts. I was conscious enough to tell him to open it on a tray.
To back up, my son is the youngest. His toys and crafts are either brand new or quite old. No in between. He loves a partially dry lump of Silly Putty. He regularly uses PlayDoh that is more brown than any other color. His Moon Sand has seen better days.
For his birthday, I shopped for things that were new to him. He’s 7 and in first grade. Science is king for him. If it moves…grows…shines…he wants to know about it. He loves Science class at school. His gifts were:
- Glow-in-the-dark Silly Putty.
- Modeling Clay…multicolored.
- Dinosaur Dig Kit.
- A book about dinosaurs.
- A book about flags.
I also bought him G.I. Joe Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, and Pirates Lego.
This morning my son asked if he could do the Dinosaur Dig Kit. I told him to use a tray. I walked in to his bedroom to see him lying on the floor chipping away at a lump of tiny sand pellets glued together. He painstakingly chipped away at the lump for quite some time. He and I chatted as he scraped and carved.
He speculated on what his dinosaur would be. Would it be a Stegosaurus? Or would it be a Tyrannosaurus Rex? Pterodactyl? He was intrigued.
While he chipped away more and more sand, I rearranged his book case. I found a pile of Dinosaur books that we consulted to check our findings. I also found a pile of Stage 1 Readers that he has outgrown. We’ll send them to his cousin in England.
He proudly held up the Dinosaur. It looked like a TRex. So we called it TRex. He found another dinosaur on his floor that was like TRex with a crest on its head…Carnitosaurus…I think.
He wants to reuse the kit. I think we might glue all the pellets together and hide the dinosaur. Nothing better than recycling a science kit, right?
I dedicate this post to my friend, WhyMommy. She is a planetary scientist who blogs at Toddler Planet. All the best to you and your family tomorrow and on.
Wow! I love the dinosaur dig kit. My boys would love that!
I love these dino dig kits – Indiana Jones in a box! What a fun post and activity that you introduced to your son!
I had a dino dig kit when I was a kid. It means so much more when you discover it yourslef! Something I will keep in mind for the future!
I want one of these!
Wow–this kit seems awesome–I’ve never seen one, but I’m betting that my Owen would love one come his summertime birthday. I’ll have to search around!
Thanks for a great post, Jill!
funny, we did kits too, but I totally forgot to take pictures!
Oh my – looks like he worked really hard to get to that dinosaur!
What a great idea for a gift! I think my kids would LOVE to unearth a dinosaur like this. And I love that you did research to figure out what kind of dinosaur it was!
Thanks so much for taking part in the science fair!