This is our last month working as Bandai STEM Ambassadors and we are so pleased that Bandai is giving one of their fantastic dig kits to one of my readers. We have reviewed quite a few kits like the Gemstone & Shark Tooth, Geode, Build Your Own Volcano and Growing Crystal & Sea Monkeys and they have never disappointed me in quality and for the educational benefits.
National Geographic have a huge range of STEM sets which allow your child/children to explore, create and discover something amazing about the natural world! There is so much out there for us to discover and learn about our amazing world!
This month, we have received the Play Sand, Dino Fossil dig kit and Real Bug dig kit. When I saw the play sand, I thought my children wouldn’t be very keen as they hardly play with this type of stuff. Surprisingly both of them love it! They both love the texture and have a whale a of time moulding, slicing and shaping it! This kit comes with six sand moulds, a sand tray and 900g of play sand. The sand moulds are quite small but it does hold the shape the sand very well. This special mixture of sand does not dry out and it acts wet while leaving your hands completely dry. It does leave a tiny residue on hands but it is very easily brushed off clean.
Next, we have the dino fossil and real bug dig kits and did you know that each kit comes with genuine items? This is why I can’t recommend these National Geographic kits enough. Also, the kits come with everything you need to learn and to excavate like educational booklets, tools and magnifying glass.
Before we excavated, we made sure that any surfaces were well protected from the brick dust and that we had our tools within reach. As an extra precaution, you might want to get your child to wear eye goggles. This time around, we didn’t have a large sheet of paper to place on the table so we used the cardboard insert to hold the dig brick. It was still able to contain all the brick dust and chips.
We didn’t need to use any water to soften the brick as it was quite easy to chip off. For the dino fossil, it comes in a dino head-shaped brick and three hidden dinosaur specimens: mosasaur tooth, dino bone and dino poop.
In the real bug kit, it comes in a scorpion shaped brick with three hidden bug specimens: scorpion, spiny spider and fortune beetle. I did wonder how they managed to hide all three bugs without destroying the bug features! I am glad that the bugs are preserved in transparent acrylic for easy examination. It was great fun for both children.
These dig kits are great for learning and as birthday presents or things to do with children! The kits are very reasonably price too. I would highly recommend them! All the dig kits are available to buy from good retailers, online and Amazon. For more information, please visit www.bandai.co.uk.
Here are the links to buy from Amazon:
Disclosure: We received the samples for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own. We have included Amazon affiliate links to the products. If you click on this and buy, we may earn a small commission.