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Human Evolution Bones at Five Below!

Nov 23rd, 2009
by dlgilbert.
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Saturday evening, I was at Five Below with my daughter, shopping for a Christmas gift for a gift exchange (we got a lava lamp, in case you’re wondering) and came upon this little gem.

Human Evolution Bones Excavation Kit

I was amazed. I’d never seen any kind of evolution “toy” before other than the great stuff from Charlie’s Playhouse, but here was something at Five Below, of all places! It’s one of those archaeology, “dig out the treasure” types of toys. I’ve gotten them before with pirate coins and “Egyptian statues” and some other goodies, but seeing something with the words “Human Evolution” on the front was a bit of a shock… a pleasant one, but a shock nonetheless!

Here’s what’s on the box and what’s in the kit.

Human Evolution Bones Excavation KitHuman Evolution Bones Excavation KitHuman Evolution Bones Excavation Kit

There’s supposed to be model glue in the kit as well, but it wasn’t in the one I photographed. I bought three of them (they were priced at $3.50) so I could give one as a gift and have a spare for myself.

Interestingly enough, there were plenty of them on the shelf. I’m not sure if that’s significant or not, since Five Below usually has a lot of everything. Maybe I’ll go back in a few days and see if they’re selling or not. I have trouble seeing this as a big seller, though it would probably sell better here than it would in the bible belt. If you’re in a highly religious area and have a Five Below in your area, check it out and let me know if your store has them.

In the meantime, my daughter is anxious to start digging.

Charlie’s Playhouse and Evolution Toys

Oct 17th, 2009
by dlgilbert.
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A few months ago, I bought the Giant Timeline Poster from Charlie’s Playhouse. I wanted to get the Giant Timeline, but I knew I didn’t have room for it (though I know better now!) and figured I could hang the smaller version on the wall somewhere so my daughter and I could have fun reading it and checking out all the crazy creatures on it. It was a great plan, but it turns out that there are very few 12-foot empty spaces on the walls in my house, so we had to unroll it on the floor.

Fortunately, that didn’t matter much and my daughter and I had a blast taking the entire evolutionary journey using the timeline as a guide. It’s a great product and made explaining evolution simple, straightforward, and fun for my daughter (who is eight years old).

A couple months after that, I bought the Ancient Creature Cards to add to the fun. The cards are huge (5.5 x 8.5) and have the same creatures that are on the timeline, but with more information about each one. My daughter took them in the car and would go through them, ordering them by period or by appearance on long drives and cracking jokes about the weirder critters. She’d still play her Nintendo DS, of course, but it was great to see her so enthusiastic about the cards, too!

Today, we got out both products and stretched out the timeline on the floor and went through the cards one by one, reading about each creature and then finding its place on the timeline, matching the card with its time period. This was all at my daughter’s request, by the way, which says volumes about the products!

Here is the resulting layout (click to embiggen)…

Charlie's Playhouse Evolution Timeline and Ancient Creature Cards

If you’ve got kids, I highly recommend these products! They’re educational and fun, which is an unbeatable combination.

Kudos to the Charlie’s Playhouse folks!