A few weeks ago my sons and I went out to a dinner date with a family member visiting from afar. As we sat at the table, my Aunt asked… “Hmm… do your children not have those iApple things?” I giggled, but explained to her that while they each have their own tablets they are limited on time of use, where they use them and how often. As much as we love technology in our household, family time and hands on things are much more important and I’m glad my husband and I are able to instill that in our children. After dinner, I thought back to some memories from years ago. As a child my parents always made science things so interesting and I remember going on little adventures at the local park with my dad with a magnifying glass and clear dishes to hold our specimens in after finding them. As we got older and my parents could afford it, my siblings and I would get really cool kits that allowed us to dig up dinosaur-like bones, bugs and mineral rocks and we enjoyed those as well.
Because of these memories it always excites me to be able to offer these similar things to my children. My sons and I spend a lot of time together and because of this, much of what we do is explore and learn about History, Science and all the wonders our beautiful Earth has to offer. But, with the rainy season upon us – our explorations have been dwindled quite a bit. That’s why I am so excited that there are cool Kits like the one I’m about to talk to you about. Discover With Dr. Cool Real Insect Excavation Kit has been a fun choice for rainy days and I am excited to place another order for other kits also available.
The Discover With Dr. Cool’s Kit retails for about $12 on their website and comes with everything you need to dig up some really cool bugs. Included in the kit is your Digging Block (which is disguised as a bright green beetle), Excavation Tools, and Adventure Guide, an Activity Booklet and 3 Real Specimens. Please note that some of the items in the kit are considered choking hazards and not recommended for children under 3.
The kit is completely hands-on and my three boys each took turns scraping away at the beetle till they revealed what was encased inside. Just like archaeologists, they took their time to clean away the dust and debris till they found what they were on the search for. I was a bit worried that with their little excavation they may mutilate the specimens while looking but each one is secure in a glass shell.
The boys took about an hour to get through the entire beetle to reveal their finds. Though I know they thoroughly enjoyed it and they took their time because this was truly an adventure to discover. My ten year old (Kevin) loved taking part in this with his little bros (Luke & Isaiah) who are just five years old and together they made this an afternoon of fun and discovery.
After making their way to through the exterior of the beetle, they slowly started to find the glass encased bugs through out the body of the beetle. What I enjoyed about this kit is there were no sharp edges to any of the digging tools. It was as simple as laying down some newspaper and clean up was just as easy as throwing it all away.
The boys didn’t have to dig too deep as most of the bug specimens were found through out the top part of the beetle. I do suggest that if you have asthma or if you have sensitivity to dust to use a mask as it seemed like this was a clay like brick and there was quite a bit of dust. We made sure to open our windows so the boys air and breathing was not compromised.
What I think is probably the coolest part is the end result. Each bug is encased in a cool glass marble and they are REAL Genuine bugs. The kit includes a guide with information on each bug included in the kit and it was so cool to see the different colors these bugs had on their bodies. The activity booklets also include challenge puzzles and games that the boys enjoyed taking part in.
At such an affordable price tag – this Discover Dr. Cool Real Bug Dig Kit includes all the makings for hours of fun and education for any little person (or even adult, since I truly enjoyed myself as well) and offers such great hands on experience for children. The box does state that the products itself are non-toxic, but I do suggest like I said before to take caution with the dust from excavation.
The boys and I are excited to try out other kits available all for about the same price range. With technology taking our World by storm, sometimes we forget all about the wonders that our Earth offers. While the internet opens up our eyes to things we can’t see or touch immediately, I’m so glad that there are still great things like this to keep our children wondering about science and more.
Have you heard of Discover Dr. Cool before? What are some interesting things you may remember about exploring from your childhood? Do you have children and is this something you think they’ll be interested in. Thanks for reading 😉
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
17 Comments
This is so cool! I have to get one for my daughter.
OH MY …. I’m definitely getting these for the kids
This looks great for kids!
Your kids are adorable and what goes better with boys than bugs?
My son would go NUTS over these!
Neato!! But I hate bugs 😛
Those guys had a BALL!!!
How fun!
So cool – my son will love this!
I commend you for teaching your boys that life aint all about social media. Seriously, kids these days should spend more doing things w/c will stimulate their intelligence and social skills.
This is a great gift idea and I love that it’s educational without them really knowing. At my school when I was about the age of your eldest, we had to make our own archaeological dig. It was just before Jurassic Park was released so it was all the rage. We made a big bed of clay in the school yard and hid little plastic specimens just like the ones in this kit. Once it was dry we all had to learn how to dig them out. It was so much fun, I will never forget that memory.
Neat! I bet my son would love this!
That is really cool. I want one! My son would flip!
This is RIGHT up my nephews alley!
My son would go NUTS over this!!
This looks so fun!
OMG that looks so fun!