West Midlands Safari Park

Whilst we were away with Single with Kids the group booked to go to West Midlands Safari Park. By booking online a day before we saved quite a bit of money. With it not being half term in Worcestershire we were pleasantly surprised that the park was all set up for its Spooky Halloween spectacular with lots of scarecrows:

  

The first living creature we encountered was a penguin. It's amazing how long boys aged 9-12 spent watching it swimming around the pool:

Most of us then visited the rather smelly bats! It did make us duck when they swooped down low over our heads in the dark... The boys were all fascinated by the reptiles too:

Review: Science Maxi Ravensburger Prehistoric Expedition

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We were very excited to be sent a Ravensburger Science X Maxi Prehistoric Expedition set to review at half term:

Perfect for budding scientists! There is a fascinating booklet included in the kit with all 15 activities listed in it, each of which take you further through time:

1. create a time line from the cut out photos in the book
2. make a trilobite model out of plaster cast
3. make a nautilus model from plaster cast
4. make an Ichthyostega model in plaster
5. examine an ammonite with a magnifying glass
6. construct a giant dragonfly
7. make an Ichthyosaurus model in plaster
8. excavate a fossil
9. make an Archaeopteryx plaster model
10. construct a T. Rex in cardboard
11. hatch triops
12. look after triops
13. light experiments with triops
14. feeding experiments with triops
15. harvest triops eggs and start again!

Typically my kids never bothered with the book they just grabbed the items that intrigued them the most. The first thing my son went for was the fossil excavation:

When he finished we had a mini dinosaur:

Next up my daughter chose to do the Tyrannosaurus Rex model. This is made of thick card and she easily managed to pop out the pieces and construct them by herself:

It makes a pretty scary and realistic fossil model:

She had a brief attempt at the dragonfly on her own but said it was too hard. We haven't had a chance to try either making plaster cast models or grow triops yet as they need more time and space than we have had recently! At least I know we have something to do on a wet weekend in the future and the triops will need to wait for the summer and some warmth as our house is too cool at the moment...

I have to say that even though £29.99 RRP seems quite pricey there are hours if not days of activities in the kit. We still have plenty more to be getting on with and I'm looking forward to making the models. Just hope I finally succeed in growing triops as we have failed in the past - the instructions in this set look so much better than in previous ones though.

If you have fans of prehistory in the house and they are 8+ then this would be a great present. Some of it will require grown up help and plenty of newspaper to prevent mess!

Friday review: Schleich Dinosaurs

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There was much excitement from my 5 year old son when I told him we were being sent dinosaurs to review. Every day he would ask have my dinosaurs arrived yet mummy?. So when they did come in the post he was very keen to get them out and start playing with them.


My son is a mini expert so he informed me that we had been sent a brachiosaurus, a spinosaurus and a parasaurolophus! Amazing how toys can stretch a child's vocabulary...

He briefly let me photograph him playing with them before scooping them up to take outside to show his friends. Since then we have taken dinosaurs to various places and he loves having adventures with them.

Schleich's attention to detail really comes across with the dinosaurs and the spinosaurus even has a jaw that opens and closes. This makes role play even more exciting.

If you have a dinosaur fan in the family then these would be an excellent edition to their collection. The range starts at £2 but the ones we were sent were £4 (brachiosaurus), £8 (parasaurolophus) and £10 (spinosaurus).

#SilentSunday 14th May 2011