Summer 2021: Prehistoric Week

 Week 7 of 8: Prehistoric Week

Dinoroarus at the Saint Louis Zoo

This was a week I had really been looking forward to! My oldest was dino-obsessed when she was younger... For two years of preschool, her weekly library book was always a dinosaur book. While she has moved on to unicorns and princesses, dinosaurs will always hold a special place in my heart and my memories. I did want to make things a little more interesting this week so I broadened the theme to "prehistoric" so we could include a few other cool STEM type activities. It was a hit!

Destinations

For our park this week, we took a 30 minute drive to Kade's Playground in Herculaneum so the kids could play in and around a very cool volcano feature. I have to say that I have discovered some really neat and unique parks this summer and this one is up at the top. Aside from the fun playground and the interactive volcano piece, this playground also had an incredible splash pad. It was probably the best splash pad I have seen so far, but maybe next summer we'll find more cool ones. The kids had so much fun at this playground they did not want to leave. We stayed for hours.

The obvious destination this week was the new Dinoroarus exhibit at the Saint Louis Zoo. I hadn't been to the zoo since they swapped out the old Children's Zoo for the new dino area and I was anxious to see it. I still remember when I was a little kid and the St. Louis Science Center got the huge animatronic dinosaurs... it blew my freaking mind. Seeing THIS exhibit all these years later with my own kids was like experiencing an echo of my own childhood. The technology has obviously improved a lot and one of the coolest things was that there were so many different types of dinosaurs on display. Each had info about the species and the displays had both movement and sound. There was also an area where the kids could use brushes to uncover "fossils" in the sand. Of course the best part of this adventure was that Dad took the morning off of work to join us!

Alternate destinations: In normal times, I would 100% have taken the kids to The Science Center. It just wasn't really in my Covid comfort zone at this time but it truly is one of my favorite attractions in St. Louis to take the kids to. Another possibility I explored was a Dinosaur Train exhibit at The Magic House but, again, it was outside of my Covid comfort zone.

Activities

We did two really fun activities this week that the kids loved. It was definitely one of their favorite weeks for the silly little crafts and experiments I like to make them do.

After we experienced the volcano at Kade's Playground we made our own volcano at home elementary-school-science-fair style. I used a kit to make one out of plaster and the kids got to paint it. They could barely wait for it to dry before making it erupt. And then they wanted to make it erupt again and again and again. They loved picking different colors to dye to the lava and pouring the vinegar.

I didn't think anything could beat the volcano, but oh man did the kids also love a "mining for gemstones" kit! I was planning to have the kids take turns breaking it up and finding the rocks, but as it turned out the kids sorted themselves into different jobs and they all LOVED it. My son was very into using the hammer and chisel, my youngest used a paintbrush to clean away the dust, and my oldest had a blast identifying the gemstones on the guide and reading their names. It was a little bonus reading practice as we prep for first grade.

The kids also spent some of their free time working through a dinosaur sticker activity book. It was a cheap find at Aldi and worked well for the moments between meals and activities.

Special Treats

It was a a busy week and another short one because of heading to our lake house, so we didn't do a lot of involved snacks or meals. The only thing I did was grab some packs of gummy dinos to take with us to the lake. If it had been a normal week I know we would have had dino pancakes, dino sandwiches, and hot lava cake!

Entertainment

We spent our downtime this week watching an old favorite - Dinosaur Train! We also watched The Good Dinosaur in the car on the way to the lake.