Smithsonian Smithsonian Micro Prehistoric Sea Monsters

I ordered this twice. 1st time, nothing. 2nd time they replaced it and again, nothing. I wouldn't waste your money.

to meEgypt Mummy Excavation KitWhat a pleasant surprise! This is a one-time-use educational "toy," that in my opinion, should have adult participation. To work through it properly and really get anything out of the process, an hour should be set aside with your child to finish the "excavation."I did this with my 7-year-old granddaughter. We took the "sandstone" block out of the box and admired all the hieroglyphs on it. Then I had her start digging with the wooden tool supplied. She suggested using a screwdriver or a knife, as it would work better and faster than the dull, wooden tool. This was my opportunity to explain that the soft, wooden tool was preferred by archeologists because it wouldn't damage whatever it was they might find buried in the hard sand.She did finally convince me that I should do the actual digging, and it really was a bit too much for her small hands. So we made a deal. I would chip away the hard sand and she would use the supplied brush to clean out the debris and expose our "diggings."She was excited when the sarcophagus started to show (and she learned a new word!), and her brushing found new energy. We chipped and brushed together for about half an hour before we could lift away the sarcophagus.Then we opened the lid to find that the sarcophagus was also packed with hard sand! It was even more "tedious" (fun!) to carefully chip and brush away to find the corpse inside! I explained to her how important it was to be patient (a concept unfamiliar to most 7-year-olds) so that we would not break any fragile bones. She was great with the whole process!After extracting and brushing clean the corpse, we then wrapped it with the supplied paper ribbon and placed it back inside the cleaned-out sarcophagus.The job was done, and I feel my granddaughter had fun with a valuable learning experience. She learned the value of patience and focus, two very valuable lessons for today's kids.Highly recommended!

Sadly, even though we followed directions, none of the eggs hatched, leaving me with some very disappointed kiddos. Like the reviews say, don’t waste your money.

We have tried this 3 times and can never get the results we were suppose to. The first time was our fault because we used tap water but the next two times we went by the book even had a sun lamp to keep the water at 75 as we keep our home cooler in the winter, no luck?????

Kids enjoy watching

I have ordered many things from amazon over the last few years and I have never been disappointed like I am with this item I purchase for my 7 yr old daughter. Nothing happened and we did everything the instruction said . She was so disappointed and so was I I will never by a smithsonian project again

For the money, they should include more than just a bag of sand and eggs. I ended up buying a small Betta tank to use for these creatures that can, apparently, grow up to 3 inches. We followed the directions exactly. It’s been a week and all we ended up with are two brine shrimp—they gave the wrong eggs.

We've hatched Triops ("sea monsters") a few times and enjoyed them. A few tips: you must use distilled water as directed. Hatch only during the warm part of the summer. They need warmth to survive! Keep them in a warm room away from any other pets. It takes a few days to see them, and they will start off very tiny. Usually only a few hatch, and you end up with one in the end, as the strongest survives. I think it's worth trying, but maybe look for a kit that comes with a proper tank first.