Educational Insights GeoSafari Jr. Fossil Excavation Kit

This was gifted to my daughter for her birthday. She was really excited, but when we discovered the fossils some looked like they had been glued back together!? Very disappointed.

Absolutely brilliant, kept my 6 and 7 year olds entertained for hours and they're thrilled with the real fossils they found.

Purchased this for a 6 year old birthday gift and they loved it!

my 8yo worked on this. the sand dollar looked good. she dug out another one that almost looked like a fossil shell, but was mostly a cracked and flaky looking plain rock. all the rest crumbled into nothing. We can guess that one was a tooth. My 8 yo loves dinosaurs and was so excited for this. She was very careful and it took a few days but she had to stop as everything else crumbled before she could dig it out. I'm going to buy her a different set

As a mother homeschooling my children, my boys had decided on having a 'dinosaur' week, and this kit really hit the target. Although this kit states age 7+, my boys are 6 and 4, and have done many dig kits before, so I thought with a little bit of supervision they would be fine, and I wasn't wrong. It comes with all the tools you need to excavate the fossils and instructions on how the best ways to do it and use the tools. There was much excitement when they first got a glimpse of their first REAL fossil! The handy book tells you all about the different fossils, what they were, what period they came from etc. My youngest son is completely in love with his Corax shark tooth, which we are now making into a necklace for him, as he now takes it everywhere! I would definitely recommend this kit as it is so informative and lots of fun!..

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This project was alot of fun for me and my 6 year old. Actually getting to dig and uncover fossil was really cool and being able to identify with the booklet was great

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I gave this product to my daughter, who had an amazing time with it! It was really fun for both of us to spend the time together "digging up fossils"! I recommend this for all parents!

Great educational toy. Actually stuff to dig for and find. Cured curiosity and really great set.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] My kids saw the box and thought it was cool from the picture. Took the items out and placed multiple boxes to not have a big mess. They were having issues using some of the tools to use on extracting some of the artifacts. They saw me and tried to mimic, but unable to follow. This wouldn't work for you if your kids don't like being outside and discovering hidden gems in this toy.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] The fossil excavation kit was the best toy for my son after seeing Jurassic park the amazement of seeing and holding and excavating REAL fossils with your own hands couldn't be beat to give that experience to continue his educational curiosity.

This product was great fun to use. I've bought kits like these in the past and we ended up with dust all over the place and plastic bits we never used. However, this kit has real fossils and my child liked the fossil design on the top of the "rock". We did this activity indoors and while there is some dust, it's definitely manageable, and quick and easy to clean up. On opening, we discussed what fossils are and what kind of creatures they once were. The first fossil we found was a real tooth. She loved that! She also enjoyed comparing her fossils to the ones featured in the booklet. I gave this four stars instead of five because it took some time (and some help from Dad) to dig away at the "rock". An older child would have the patience and the strength to chisel away at their rock. That said, the tools are good quality and strong enough to withstand the hammering needed to excavate real fossils. It was good fun and kept her occupied for ages. We did have to help her to keep her engaged but she is 7 and an older child could do this on their own.

My 7 year old son couldn't wait to get started! We have used similar things in the past but this one was so much better. He had so much fun using the different tools and they were very robust. He sat for much longer digging away as there were more fossils to find. The fact the fossils were real added even more to the enjoyment. Sadly we broke one, but that was more to do with carelessness by me! There is an element of mess, so would recommend doing it outside, but this made it all the more realistic for my son. Once all the fossils are excavated there is an identification guide in the booklet adding to our learning.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I honestly expected more. I was let down when I opened the box, the fossil is like a piece of sidewalk chalk and it's got the designs etched into the top with small plastic like Dino skeleton pieces inside. It is very small, fits in the palm of my hand and appears cheaply made overall. The tools it came with much better quality than seen in most toys and educational products I've seen and used with my kids. While my 4 kids were excited about using this product, my older 2 boys, who are 10 and 13, lost interest fast soon followed by my 9 year olds daughter. My 6 year old son was most amused and had the most interest and fun in excavating the fossils with me. He's also the only one that stayed with me working on it until it was finished. Overall, i believe this educational toy is best fit for younger children, and gives a good parent and child bonding activity and opens the door for an educational, fun and memorable play time experience between parent and child. While younger kids are excited and interested and interact well with it it appears older kids loose interest fast in the product and are less inclined to finish excavating the fossils after the first one. I'd recommend this really only for kids ages 4-8 possibly and would suggest having someone else to keep the interaction going and the excitement of the whole excavation process going. I'd highly recommend including more educational materials or activities in like a activity booklet or pamphlet with the product that includes possibly dinosaur pictures, fun facts and small short activities so the kids can see the pictures and relate to what they know as a dinosaur to make it more "real" to them.

We had so much fun digging for our fossils - My boys don't usually sit in one spot for long, but this really kept their attention. There were points that I had to help out (which I didn't mind one bit - It's very satisfying chipping away!), and one of our fossils did brake but that was only due to heavy hands. Once we had all the fossils out, we gave them a good clean and learnt all about each one. Such a fun and educational activity - Would highly recommend!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This was by far one of the neatest things we've gotten to try over the years. It really gives them the feel of being an archeologicalist on a dig site clearing away useless dirt to find the treasures underneath. I would recommend this be done outside if any means possible because for obvious reasons it's a very messy toy. It also has the drawbacks of a short "playtime" they do the digging etc. once and then all the tools that come along are wasted and if your child doesn't become enamored with the fossils... well that's it. End of play session and end of toy. For around $20 it isn't awful but make sure you know your audience when choosing the gift is my suggestion. So the fossils add longevity to the toy's shelf life in the eternal toy box so to speak.

My seven year old is very hands on when it comes to learning. So I thought this fossil dig kit would give him an opportunity to explore for himself to uncover secrets from the past! He enjoyed using the tools to dig out each fossil and finding the correlating facts about them in the booklet provided. It took him a few hours over the course of a week to complete the dig. It also taught him to have some patience. That he had to go slowly and carefully, as at first he broke one of the fossils in half! These kits are great for one child or to share with a partner. I also think they would make great activities for a party, whereby the children could take their uncovered fossils home as a party favor. Will definitely be getting other dig fossil kits in the future.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] At first I thought this was going to be cheesy, but I have to say, I am very I'm impressed with this kit!! Not only are the tools high quality and easy to learn to use, but the fact that this had real fossils in it blew my mind!! It took about 2 hours to get all of the fossils out, we made sure to take our time because fossils can be fragile, but when you get have 8 to find you end up finding the and getting them out in 15-20 minutes each. The included book that gives you info about each fossil was super educational and I loved the pictures!! It was so cool to see the animal that my fossil came from!! I am so impressed with this I have been looking into other kits with this company, this was so fun and educational and again the fact that the fossils were real was the coolest part!!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] My family enjoyed digging out the really oldfossils.. It was hard work but everyone got a hand in on the digging... My 9 year old shared some of her finds with her friends... It came with an awesome information pamphlet to explain all your finds.. Neat tools to dig out the fossils one at a time.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Gave this to my 10 year old niece and she loved it! She is very curious about all things science related and found the digging for fossils to be a fun task! She wanted to start digging up the yard next.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Great educational toy! It really teaches kids to get into science and more about history!