Review: My First Dino Kit

I mentioned a few days ago that David brought a dinosaur kit from the bookstore.

Well, as of today, he’s done all the activities. Included in the box was

• 1 glow in the dark snap-together dinosaur skeleton
• 1 pink grow-and-shrink triceratops
• 1 block of clay with a hidden dinosaur with a pick/scraper and brush to “excavate” it and goggles for eye protection

The snap-together dino skeleton didn’t really teach David anything about anatomy. There were about six or seven pieces that fit together pretty much the way KinderSurprise toys do, and at about the same difficulty level.

Nothing much that was educational about it out of the box, but everything has educational value to a questioning preschooler.

“Mom, what makes it glow?”

I showed him that the green dinosaur he had just built glowed in the dark. He thought that was quite cool, and then asked, “Mom, what makes it glow?”

I tried to explain phospors which use light like a battery to charge, and which stay in a semi-excited state even after the light was gone…. but I was sure I had lost him the second I said phosphorescent.

So I grabbed a flashlight and we played “Florescent, Phosphorescent” which turned out to be a little like “Red Light, Green Light”. I’d shine the light on David and he’d start to wiggle (get excited), then as I shut off the flashlight I’d yell “florescent!” (which meant he had to stop instantly) or “phosphorescent!” which means he’d keep wiggling but slow down a little at a time until I turned the flashlight on again, at which time full blast wiggling would commence.

Semi-educational and burned a lot of kid energy.

“Were there any real pink dinosaurs, mom?”

The second thing in the box was a little pink dinosaur that grows when kept in water for a few days. We kept it in water for three days, and it didn’t really grow that big, and it wasn’t terribly interesting except to lead to a discussion about what color dinosaurs were.

Since no one really knows, it was fun to talk about how some animals rely on camouflage to hide them from their predators or prey, while breaking out the dinosaur books to see what sort of colors dinosaurs might have needed their camouflage to be to blend in with their surroundings.

“Digging for dinosaurs is hard work, mom!”

The final item was the dig-your-own dinosaur. David had a lot of fun with this, and it took a long, long time to get all the bones uncovered.
Still, he’s still decided that it would be fun to be a paleontologist when he grows up. After he’s finished being a fire fighter.

Overall, the kit was fun for David. He liked the building, excavating, and even checking the water each morning to see how much bigger the triceratops had gotten, so as a toy, this rates well

However, if you’re looking to buy it as an educational activity, be aware that you’ll have to take some initiative to build on what’s there to give it any real value. If you want to give this as a work-alone activity, the educational value is pretty much limited to practicing fine motor skills and patience.

Tags: dinosaurs, educational kit, review

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