Walking with dinosaurs

Who would have thought that the MEN Arena would one day play host to 15 life sized dinosaurs! But that’s exactly what it did – when I took the kids to the amazing ‘Walking with dinosaurs’ show last week.

The show, hosted by a palaeontologist named Huxley, traces the earth’s history through the 200 million year story of the evolution, dominance and ultimately the demise of the dinosaurs. It’s informative and although the narration is educational, it’s most definitely not boring!

These part-animatronic, part-puppet creations saunter in to gasps of amazement. The dinosaurs send out loud cries, the big ones bend towards the audience and nibble at the bright flora around the stage area. They prey on other dinos, fight amongst themselves, and protect their young ones to gasps of amazement from the audience.

The grand finale of the T-Rex teaching her baby to roar when all he could muster up was a tiny comical gurgle was no doubt the first and last time any of us could deem a dinosaur cute!

Improve your maths with ..... musical toys!

It appears that not only can music help the development of a child, it can also apply to adults too. There have been studies that show that listening to Mozart for an hour before a test or exam can actually improve analytical and logical skills.

Could it be the genius of Mozart enhancing your brain’s performance or the music relaxing you enough so that you approach the test or exam more calmly and rationally?

It seems that whatever the answer to that quandary, music and musical toys will have an instant effect on babies and children.

We’ve got a wide range of musical toys here at Gifted Originals, including handbells, maracas, xylophones and even a fab wooden banjo – so let the fun begin – get jiggy with it and watch them wiggle and dance to the music!