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Join the Picnic Parade: Picnic with the Dinosaurs

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I hope you are enjoying our Picnic Parade!

Every child goes through a phase in life when they are fascinated by dinosaurs.  Regardless of age, there is always something new to learn about the unfamiliar world of dinosaurs.  Join us on today’s picnic as we explore the world of dinosaurs!

dinosaur picnicLocation, Location, Location

We decided that the best place for this picnic was among the dinosaurs–Dinosaur World!  If you don’t have a Dinosaur World near you (FL, TX, KY), you may want to visit the Creation Museum, any museum that may have a dinosaur exhibit, or even one of the traveling dinosaur recreations that you can find at zoos or education centers.  Even a spot where children can dig for fossils might be a good idea.  If all else fails, head to your favorite picnic spot and imagine what it would be like there if dinosaurs still roamed the earth.  

Books and Differing Views

I wasn’t sure what I believed about dinosaurs until we visited the Creation Museum. Click To Tweet

Before you choose your books for the picnic, unless you choose a completely fictional story, you will want to consider your beliefs about dinosaurs.  I honestly wasn’t sure what I believed about how or when they came into existence, or when they became extinct, until we visited the Creation Museum.  At first I was skeptical, but I was fascinated by all I learned.  Even more so, I trusted my husband, who has a degree in biology and a scientific mind, to sift through the information.  I highly suggest a trip to the Creation Museum to see for yourself!

Complete Creation Museum Adventure

If you can’t go yourself, consider getting The Complete Creation Museum Adventure: A Field Trip in a Book.   It reads like a walk through the Creation Museum and is packed with information.  It’s also a great way to remember your visit.  

No matter what you believe about dinosaurs, you can find several dinosaur books that your family might enjoy.  Since we studied the science behind creation this year, we wanted more dinosaur books that taught us about this topic and presented a young earth view.  We discovered several fascinating dinosaur books for all ages…

More Great Reads

My Creation Bible

For Young Readers

We love My Creation Bible: Teaching Kids to Trust the Bible from the Very First Verse.  Although it is technically a story about creation, it depicts dinosaurs in appropriate locations throughout the book, often alongside humans.  

For Older Children

Dinosaurs for Kids presents information organized by time periods.  Instead of your typical Mesozoic and Cenozoic type time periods, the time periods of dinosaurs presented here are: Formed, Fearless, Fallen, Flood, Faded, Found, Fiction.  Information is mingled with Bible verses that support these theories.  Popular world views of dinosaurs are also explained.  

Dragons and Dinosaurs

Also check out Dragons: Legends & Lore of Dinosaurs.  Most of the information in this book was new to us, and fascinating too!  There are beautiful illustrations, many that fold out or are hidden under flaps, but in a way that appeals to your older readers.  

Dinosaur Delicacies

Since we actually traveled to Dinosaur World for this picnic, we wanted preassembled goodies to eat.  The herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and even “sweet”ivores were represented.  As we ate, we discussed these terms.

Herbivores

Our herbivores ate mandarin orange cups.  It doesn’t get easier than that!  

Unfortunately there are very few vegetables our kids will eat.  If your kids will eat them, you could bring veggies and dip.  You could pretend that broccoli were little trees that the dinosaurs knocked over with their tails!  

Carnivores

Carnivores

Our carnivores ate dinosaur eggs.  To make “dinosaur” eggs, boil your eggs.  Then crack the shells and place them in warm water and food coloring.  Food coloring packages should also have directions for this.  As the eggs sit, the color will soak through and leave a crackle design on your eggs.  The longer you leave them, the more color will be absorbed.  I left mine around 5 minutes.  

Dinosaur Claws

Although not really meat, we also ate the dinosaur claws, too!  (aka Bugles)  

Sweetivores

Sweetivores

We have some serious sweetivores in our family!  For them, we made fossil cookies.  We used pre-made sugar cookie dough.  After they baked and were still soft, we pressed toy dinosaurs into them to create fossils.  

More Dinosaur Fun

If you are lucky enough to hold your picnic on location, that may be enough fun in and of itself.  Here are a couple more fun dinosaur activities you can do…

Ice Age Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs trapped in Ice

Ice Age Dinosaur Eggs

This is perfect for a hot picnic day!  We stretched out balloons and put plastic toy dinosaurs inside.  Then we filled them up with water and froze them.  They helped keep our food cool in the cooler.  Afterwards, we let the kids kick them around and break out the dinosaurs.  

Play Doh Fossils

Play Doh Dinosaurs and Fossils

A very simple activity for any picnic is to throw some Play Doh in your bag.  We asked the kids to create their own dinosaurs and fossils.  You could ask your children to design dinosaurs with features specific to how they lived.  For example, we learned that the dinosaurs with sharper teeth were the carnivores.  Meat eaters might also want to have sharp claws.  

Thank you for sharing our dinosaur picnic with us!  

Have you done any fun dinosaur activities?  

Check out these inspiring Picnic Parade ideas:

A Rainbow of My Own

A Nighttime Picnic with Night Animals

Picnic at the Oklahoma Land Run

The House at Pooh Corner

Burgess Bird Book–Welcome Spring!

Boxcar Children Adventures!  

A Picnic with Frog and Toad

Imagination Station’s “Light in the Lion’s Den”

The Trellis and the Seed

The Sign Painter’s Dream

Picnic with a Purpose:  Who Was Mother Teresa?

Ladybug Girl at the Beach

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Filed Under: Book Brigade, Curriculum, Devotionals, Family Time, Fun, Fun and Field Trips, Homeschool, Kid Books and Resources, Picnic Parade Tagged With: Curriculum, Family, Family Bible Study, Homeschool, Picnic Parade, Reviews, Spring, Summer

Comments

  1. andrea says

    May 22, 2017 at 6:52 pm

    and a lot of fun for the kids with this one, i would imagine

    Reply
  2. Erin says

    May 22, 2017 at 7:58 pm

    I cannot thank you enough for this post. My son, now being five years old, is greatly interested in dinosaurs. I often find myself saying things like, “yeah but it didn’t really happen like that.” Now I’m going to have to gather up all of these books and make a field trip!
    Erin recently posted…Blessings…My Profile

    Reply
    • admin says

      May 22, 2017 at 8:08 pm

      I’m so excited you found this fun and useful. We were really fascinated by all we learned through these resources and our other creation studies too. Have fun on your field trip! I would love to hear about it!

      Reply
  3. Sheila Qualls says

    May 22, 2017 at 8:42 pm

    My kids loved dinosaurs when they were little. We had all kind of dinosaur stuff. My daughter even wanted to be study dinos for a living. LOL. That’s probably a fascination with lots of kids. I loved that time.

    Reply
  4. Heather Hart says

    May 22, 2017 at 9:39 pm

    How fun! My boys would have loved this when they were younger.
    Heather Hart recently posted…Let’s Be Real (we all struggle with something)My Profile

    Reply
  5. Alice says

    May 22, 2017 at 11:17 pm

    Sounds like so much fun. I think everyone is fascinated by dinosaurs.
    Alice recently posted…What Armor Are You Wearing?My Profile

    Reply
  6. Heather Zechman says

    May 23, 2017 at 8:30 am

    I did not know about the dinosaur books and I think that is really neat and want to purchase some for my kids! Awesome picnic theme, I love the sugar cookies!

    Reply
  7. Victoria says

    May 23, 2017 at 8:41 am

    I love this! I didn’t know that these sort of books existed. I’ll be checking them out.

    Reply
    • admin says

      May 24, 2017 at 11:16 pm

      Glad you found them. They are great!

      Reply
  8. William Sheerin says

    June 5, 2017 at 4:04 pm

    My 13 year old son went through the dinosaur stage but the two little guys aren’t there yet. I wish we had a dinosaur world near us, that sounds like fun.
    William Sheerin recently posted…010My Profile

    Reply
  9. Gale says

    June 12, 2017 at 12:36 pm

    Neat Dino ideas. I especially like those cookies (pinned them for later).

    Reply
  10. Scott LaPierre says

    June 27, 2017 at 9:26 pm

    Hi Tara,
    Dinosaurs are definitely one of the most controversial areas of the creation account with opinions all over the map. I appreciated what you said about your husband and trusting him. It’s particularly cool that he has a biology degree and holds to Scripture.
    Scott LaPierre recently posted…How can a wife give her husband accountability?My Profile

    Reply
  11. Patty says

    July 17, 2017 at 7:53 am

    What fun activities to try. I love the Ice Age Dinosaur Eggs.

    Reply
    • admin says

      July 18, 2017 at 10:39 pm

      Thanks. We had a good time!

      Reply

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Hello! I'm Tara. My kids and I spend a lot of time in our van (and elsewhere) singing, playing , and praying. Join us as we navigate through the winding roads of life, enjoy the journey, and arrive at a place where we love Jesus with all our hearts. Read More
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