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!

Location, 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!

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

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.  

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

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.  

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

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 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 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

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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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