This morning we had some fun with a little dinosaur skull we recently purchased. Ahead of time, I put the skull into a dixie cup and filled the cup with water, then left it in the freezer overnight. I did the same with a rock to be a “fossil” and a little plastic lizard, for lack of any other dinosaur “bones”!

In the morning, I asked Travis if he wanted to be a paleontologist and excavate dinosaurs from the ice. How, I asked him, would we get them out?

He loved the puzzle behind this game more than I thought, asking me which tools we could use. I gave him cups of warm water, a spoon, an eye dropper, and a little (child-safe) chisel.

I was so proud of how patient he was with our “excavation! I thought he might just pour the warm water onto the ice, but he loved spooning it carefully, and watching the toys be freed little by little.

The best was when our T-rex was nearly out, but a final chunk of ice remained in its jaws – Travis loved reaching in to pull it out.

A cute game for the imagination and for a tiny intro to archaeology.