This past weekend, Eamon and I conducted a little experiment in the kitchen. It's really difficult to get him interested in crafts at times; he'd much rather build train tracks and run cars around the house, but the need for his involvement in sensory based activities is becoming more important lately.

The past summer, thanks to dozens of visits to the Academy of Natural Sciences, created a new love for Eamon - dinosaurs! And thanks to a great video from What's Up Moms (probably my favorite mom vlog right now on YouTube, I discovered a fantastic recipe for dinosaur eggs.

Using household ingredients and a stash of tiny dinosaurs, we made our very own activity for the budding paleontologist.

Ingredients: 



To make the dinosaur eggs all you need is salt, flour, ground coffee, and play sand. We actually tried, originally, to use a container of instant coffee that no one would drink in the house (but we still kept around for camping) for the first batch of eggs but switched to regular ground coffee for the second. It only changed the consistency slightly believe it or not, but the smell of the coffee was a little overwhelming.


Directions:

Using one cup of each ingredient, mix in a large bowl until the ingredients are evenly mixed throughout. Add in 1/2 cup of water and stir until blended evenly.

When your mixture is the right moldable consistency, form into and egg shape, making sure to fit your "fossil" into the center. Once you have your eggs formed, place them on a baking sheet and bake for about an hour at 200 degrees. Eamon was so afraid that his dinosaurs were going to melt in the over, but the low temperature of the oven simply removes the excess moisture from the mixture - much like a dehydrator.

Once your eggs are done baking, let them cool off before letting your little one at them. This was the most difficult part of the experience and Eamon ended up mashing right into a few of them while they were still warm. He just couldn't wait.


Let the fun begin (or end)!

This was the best part! Using his little Home Depot tool kit, Eamon dug right into his eggs. Adding a little bit of extra water them made it softer and easier to unearth (get it?!)



It didn't take long for him to hammer, chisel, and saw away and find his dinos safe and sound deep in the center of the eggs. <3



Mixing and forming the eggs was very therapeutic and is a great sensory play in itself. Eamon loves dirt and sand and this really reminded him of playing at the beach digging through and compacting wet sand into shapes. Even when his eggs were already broken up he still wanted to spend nearly half an hour more just playing with the broken pieces, trying to crumble through, mold, and bury toys underneath letting his imagination run wild.




MOM TIP: I have to say that I'm glad I put down some Press and Seal on the table before he "dug into" this activity because any time you put little boys in front of anything hammering, digging, or breaking apart, you're bound to get some where it wasn't supposed to be, but this time I was able to 1 - 2 - 3 clean up just by removing the wrap from the table and balling it up into the trash when he was done. 

 If you're more of a visual learner check out the link to the What's Up Moms vlog below, which is where I got this awesome idea!