The Diary of a Young Dinosaur Fan

In our quieter moments (not that we get many these days), some of our team members like to explore the blog universe to see what dinosaur and prehistoric animal related posts we can find.  None of us would profess to be totally comfortable with the Internet and all that it offers but we are able to navigate our way around and we do find some interesting sites and posts.

Young Dinosaur Fan

On one such visit to the blog sphere, Margaret found a web blog written on behalf of Bridger a young dinosaur fan from the USA.  Bridger’s dad tells us that Bridger fell in love with dinosaurs when he was only 1 year old.  He first called them “saurs” and he had a collection of 4 or 5 plastic dinosaurs that he carried with him everywhere.  We’d always ask him “What are you thinking about?” and he’d respond, “Dinosaurs”.
Bridger’s father goes onto recount that by age 3; Bridger was perfectly pronouncing words like Styracosaurus and Archaeopteryx.  He fell in love with the Land Before Time movies and watched, listened, and read anything dinosaur related.  The other day he told his dad; “You know, a lot of kids like things, but then they stop liking that and start liking something else.  I will never stop liking dinosaurs.  I can’t get them out of my mind.”

Young Bridger with a Dimetrodon

Picture courtesy of Bridger’s dad.

Passion for Dinosaurs

At age 4, he started writing letters to people to tell them about dinosaurs.  He’d call all of his family and friends and tell them all about them.  His passion for dinosaurs was so touching that Bridger’s dad decided to start the blog. He has written almost every night for over a year now.  He calls it his “letter to the world”.

You can visit Everything Dinosaur’s website here: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.

At Everything Dinosaur, we are always amazed at how much young people know about dinosaurs, they seem to be able to absorb all the facts and information like a sponge.  When we visit schools to do talks and other activities we often get challenged and corrected by young dinosaur enthusiasts.  Woe betides us should we actually get something wrong!

It is fascinating to hear the many explanations we get as to why Triceratops had horns and how dinosaurs looked after their young and the highly imaginative theories put forward regarding their extinction.  We often marvel at the reasons given for their demise, hopefully the Everything Dinosaur blog will act as a resource for lots of dinosaur information for these young palaeontologists.

We know many teachers that have sought the advice and help from their charges when it comes to devising activities and we even had one or two confess to us that they have let a child teach the rest of the class as they know far more than the teacher does.  Good for them!

Dinosaurs and prehistoric animals remain a source of fascination for children, as far as our business; Everything Dinosaur is concerned, long may this continue.  Involving dinosaurs in the lesson plans helps children to develop an interest in the world around them and to help them to gain an introduction to some of the basic concepts of science like examining evidence and putting together theories.

With a new species of dinosaur being discovered every 6-8 weeks, perhaps it is going to be clever little boys like Bridger who will become the palaeontologists and geologists of the future, following in the footsteps of Darwin, Owen, Marsh and Mantell.