Unschooling Dinosaur Toy Collection

[UnconventionalDad]

Hello all, our dinosaur toy collection came about when the toddler took an interest in dinosaurs, and me thinking 'well why can't a kid 'start school' at two? it's just playing, and golly he seems to be absorbing any dino info seemingly automatically

i'm not sure how many dino toys we have...60 or so?  They lucked out because of our living in canada, i had to order 14-20 at a time so it wasn't all shipping costs

A hefty investment for some kids' toys, but they will be around in our unschooling environment long after they are 'just toys' (which they never really were!)

the first video i would like to share is how I knew dinosaurs would be something special, and an easy way to 'sneak education into him' disguised as play

our 'good collection' began after we bought out the local dollar stores of their '5 popular species'...an internet search brought me to this website, and that began hundreds of hours of research together

thinking of educating at home? dinosaur toy collections!!

this is the video of when we brought 'cartnotortoise' and \giggaminnasaurus' home

we just discovered this collections forum and the 5yo has already scrolled through many of your images (computer navigation skills were developed while searching for dinosaur toys )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBzHzoaiGeA&index=10&list=PLmdYJT8JBWQv2xJuxPWIaNxe5Pnl5wetI

[UnconventionalDad]

Today he is 5 and a few days....he asked if we could make another dinosaur video, and i remembered he asked me what a quiz was, so i gave him his very first!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfehhJvbLzo&index=1&t=4s&list=PLmdYJT8JBWQv2xJuxPWIaNxe5Pnl5wetI

[UnconventionalDad]

want smarter kids and to learn a crapload yourself? add more dinos to your collection and play more


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LLdi-tZ-lg&index=6&t=1s&list=PLmdYJT8JBWQv2xJuxPWIaNxe5Pnl5wetI

[UnconventionalDad]

How did i choose the dinos for the collection?

sometimes as a surprise, if i saw a toy from a movie or show, or from some previous research, sometimes i let him navigate and order his own 'new guys'

many of the additions to the collection came after hours and hours, even moths of research

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaXjMWP1jAY&index=11&t=2s&list=PLmdYJT8JBWQv2xJuxPWIaNxe5Pnl5wetI

[Reptilia]

Be sure not to use Schleich (or Papo) dinosaurs for your teaching purposes, they sell their toys as educational but it's just deceptive marketing! 

[UnconventionalDad]

Be sure not to use Schleich (or Papo) dinosaurs for your teaching purposes, they sell their toys as educational but it's just deceptive marketing! 

thanks for the tip! while perhaps not scientifically accurate, they have been nothing but educational i'll give that credit!  we quit getting papo on account of their child-unfriendliness (the only make the pieces break off we discovered)

we have a lot of schlech and papo because those are the ones available in stores in canada...i was super excited when we started ordering collecta and safari ltd for their seemingly nicer quality, but more importantly, species variation

luckily for our purposes just having a toy that's a new species is quite a big mark in the pro column!

once we starting getting the collecta and safari, the schleich ones in the store became less and less interesting on their own

[Reptilia]

You can't go wrong with Safari.

[Neosodon]

Safari takes first place and Collecta takes second in terms of scientific accuracy for lesser expensive models.

once we starting getting the collecta and safari, the schleich ones in the store became less and less interesting on their own

Yup, wish all parents could see this.

[UnconventionalDad]

thanks for the responses, now that i think about it again, it was after his love of ceratopsians was growing after several good ones, and i remember walking out of the store thinking 'how damn big is the pentaceratops compared to all the others???  (add that to the fact i discovered online purchased dinosaurs hadn't been played with by 1000 probably misbehaved kids already! )

thanks for your responses about the accuracy...i had really gone by 'these ones look better and wow the variety' but with the few seconds you took to reply, i all of a sudden have hours and hours of 'why aren't these accurate' classes penciled in for 'some time'

i wonder, is there a 100% undisputedly accurate model? (what current research allows for, i suppose)

[UnconventionalDad]

hahahaha, you guys! i remember one of his first good ones was his new favourite prehistoric flying reptile, the 'quetzal-co-atticus'

now i can only see how comical that and his Anhanguera (not featured) are! (like the wing material)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa1hg4KVBvs&list=PLmdYJT8JBWQv2xJuxPWIaNxe5Pnl5wetI&index=9

[DinoToyForum]

Loving these videos. Glad if this forum helped a little, but you should take all the credit for fostering his interest. Has he been to see the real deal in a museum yet? That could be mind blowing for someone so interested!

[UnconventionalDad]

Loving these videos. Glad if this forum helped a little, but you should take all the credit for fostering his interest. Has he been to see the real deal in a museum yet? That could be mind blowing for someone so interested!

thanks!!  wasn't really sure if this was the proper forum to show them, but i take more videos that pics

i wasn't sure what the toddler was talking about today with marshmallows and green berries, but i discovered it was green and white bits of the diorama

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-7BUwRD6SY


we look forward to taking them to see fossils for sure, we're just waiting on the toddler to become interested and at 'remembering age'

something tells me a half-country trip to alberta will cover a lot of school topics

[laticauda]

Love the videos.  I have done similar things with both my kids (I also include current species as well as extinct).  A fun note of warning:  You never know what kids are going to say.  We were at the museum and my daughter who I think was three at the time was siting on a bench next to a stuffed American Bison.  A docent was walking by with a tour group and referred to the Bison as a Buffalo.  My daughter looks up at the docent and says to her in a loud but sweet voice," its called a Bison."  After a glance at my daughter, the docent continued talking about the Bison and again referred to it as a Buffalo.  She again said," no its called a Bison."  I was trying so hard to not laugh out loud.    She was so calm, just  sitting there on the bench, but she was adamant that the docent got it right.

[UnconventionalDad]

the docent continued talking about the Bison and again referred to it as a Buffalo.  She again said," no its called a Bison."

haha, oh they'll let you know if you're wrong

[UnconventionalDad]

here's a great view of our (most of) collection

and how easy it is to fill play with learning...he has had one dino battle like this for each year dinosaurs have been extinct for.  and spoiler alert, folks, it's a lot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dphkihWlWY&list=PLmdYJT8JBWQv2xJuxPWIaNxe5Pnl5wetI&index=1

side note, he plays a lot less with the carnivores, always has.  also refuses to want a dino toy 'that's on ground' even if we don't have that species

i was looking around for the 'making of' vids of those dino play sets i have, or as you folks call 'em, dioramas.  then i looked in the diorama section.  I'm blown away!!

[UnconventionalDad]

We built a new playset, opting for cardboard and gorilla tape under the paint, paper, and glue family crafting project

Welcome to Ceratopsian Mountain!





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