Dinosaur Week

We’ve been taking time each week to dive deeper into an interest or just something fun. This week we planned a dinosaur theme.

I think it’s important to make sure we are doing our everyday curriculum but more so, I think it’s so much MORE important that I am stimulating a creative and critical mind in my kids. I don’t want to make my main focus math and reading, even though they are important, they are not everything. We live in an amazing world, created by a an even more amazing Creator. I wanted to facilitate for them to get to know Him more and more. I think in our days we stifle and ignore His creativity around us, and the creativity He naturally put in our kids. So, this week we dove into dinosaurs!

First, I’ll say, I am a busy mom. I don’t have time to sit and plan these weeks out for hours at a time. I try to limit myself so I can spend time where it matters. Pinterest and Instagram have been my best friends, so many amazing homeschool mama’s out there making it happen and helping the rest of us! I’m thankful for them.

This week we got books from the library about dinosaurs, I let the kids pick the books! I think that way, they are invested into reading them more! My mom snagged some books online that were bright, engaging and educational. I try to hit all three of those things!

We had a lot of stuff on hand for Dino week. We had our dinosaur floor puzzle from Melissa and Doug, super fun and has the names of basic dinosaurs on the puzzle! We had books from usborne, the big book of dinosaurs is one of our favorites! We colored pictures of printable (free on the internet!) of our favorite dinosaurs!

Later in the week, we froze mini dinosaurs to pretend we were archeologist and paleontologist, we used hammers and chisels to dig “up” our fossils! I really recommend this project if you are doing dinosaur week. I just took mini dinosaur toys and froze them in ziplock bags overnight. The kids LOVED it and we got to see some imprints of our dinosaurs in the ice! It really drove home the meaning of a fossil.

Again, we just used tools we had on hand for this task! Don’t go crazy blowing your budget. Utilize what you have on hand, and make it work for your family!

One of the things we did purchase, was a dig kit online. We got it at amazon for $20, but really worth it. It was a simple set up, and kept the kids entertained for about half hour or more! It’s messy, so be prepared for that.

They really LOVED the treasures buried inside. They remembered all the tools archeologist need to dig up fossils. We went over the impressions and imprints left behind, and all that fun stuff. They really caught on to the information with this project. I’d highly recommend it. They also got to KEEP all the fun things hidden and read about them in the booklet included.

All in all, they had an amazing time learning about dinosaurs, paleontologists and archeologists. It was fun for me to set it all up, and give them something to look forward to that week. I recommend spending a week on an interest of choice, it gives it repetition and really becomes glue to their growing brains! Plus, it’s way easier on the Mama who’s busy with other things! Keep it simple. Keep it fun. Give them Him! What should we do next?!?

Until next time!

-Becca