My sister made this mini dinosaur dig for her girls with rice and plastic toy dinosaurs. They dig them up using some of their paintbrushes. They will play for hours with this. My niece M. learned about dinosaurs at her Montessori school a year ago, and the summer following that school year went to Drumheller in Alberta where both girls spent some time at the Fossil World Discovery Center where they have a fossil dig for kids. She has been interested in anything dinosaur since then. My niece says she loves this little fossil dig because when she grows up she wants to be a paleontologist.