Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Dinosaurs Before Dark + Natural Museum of History = Kids Off The Couch


Spinning through the air in a tree house, soaring on the back of a fuzzy Pteranodon, running from a trumpeting T-Rex, what better way to entice first time readers? Reading is an adventure for both boys and girls when Mary Pope Osborne takes children on a journey through time and space in the Magic Tree House series. Our kids loved Jack and Annie, two curious kids who discover a tree house that whirls them on one historical escapade after another. We celebrated our kids' new ability to read chapter books by planning an excursion that matched the theme of the book.
In the first book, Dinosaurs Before Dark, Jack and Annie swirl to the Cretaceous period and encounter four types of dinosaurs. We took a more earthly mode of transportation to our local Natural History Museum for our own hands-on dinosaur experience with fossilized eggs, bones and giggle-inducing poop. We were lucky enough to watch as paleontologists cleaned and assembled Thomas the T-Rex, a 14 year old dinosaur that glitters!

1 comment:

Shirley said...

So many kids are stuck in front of a TV playing games, that has a lot of violence, or wasting away watching movies that I was excited to find your blog. Even working moms and dads can learn what to do to get "kids off the couch" and into something more constructive. Thanks for a great blog. Iam putting a link to your blog on mine which has recipes for kids who hate eating vegetables at Squidoo. I also got your widget to display on my site.