Last month, my oldest graduated from przedszkola (preschool). I know, it’s a major milestone (said with heavy sarcasm). Nonetheless, it was a major accomplishment for him, and that is what matters most. It was a świętowanie (celebration) of what he accomplished in the school year, including learning to read, tell time, addition, subtraction and a whole lot of nauki przyrodnicze (science). It was also his commencement; he’s ready to start school in the jesień (fall) and become a part of the ritual that is education.  So to celebrate the great year and help him kick off the lato (summer) on a fun note, I put together a short weekend getaway in search of the prehistoric creatures that fascinate him: dinozaury (dinosaurs).

Back in November 2009, I came across a news story on our local news that talked about a young girl finding a skamielina (fossil) while on a dig excursion with her family. The local news did not go into too many details, but I had enough information to Google what I needed. I found a great article in the Washington Post (article here). The next day I shared it with my son, and the glimmer in his eye was all I needed to start researching and planning our wycieczka (trip) out to Maryland. With the onset of zima (winter), he understood we could not venture till wiosna (spring), and his completion of the pre-school program was merit enough to make this learning urlop (vacation) one to look forward to.

On Saturday June 5, we went to Dinosaur Park in Laurel, MD. The park is a little over forty acres and the highlight is that it features a rare deposit of fossils from the okresu kredy (Cretaceous Period) (144 to 65 million years ago). While there, we found a lot of węgiel brunatny (lignite), some of which we were able to take home as a souvenir of our adventures. We got to work sifting through the dirt, rubble and rocks colored pomarańczowy (see my last blog for this translation) by the process of utlenianie żelaza (iron oxidation). After what seemed like hours in the blazing słońce (sun), we gathered our final finds, hoping that one of them was more than just a souvenir to take home. And one was! My oldest uncovered a fossilized szyszka (pine cone) from the Cretaceous Period. The fossil was bagged, tagged and packaged to be taken to the Smithsonian for further badanie (study). My oldest, beaming with pride, was photographed with his treasure and quoted for a newspaper article. The trip was a sukces (success)!

For my oldest, the things he seems to learn the best and enjoy the most are those that I can tie back to his life. After the trip, he was curious as to what sort of dinosaur discoveries have been made in Poland. Not knowing very well myself, I did some poszukiwanie (research).  According to the Polish Geological Institute website, in 1959, a geologist named Władysław Karaszewski discovered Mesozoic reptilian tracks in imprints in the Kielce region of Poland. Discoveries have been growing in the decades since, however, one of the most significant was made just two years ago. In August of 2008, paleontologists digging in a brickyard in southern Poland discovered the remains of a dinosaur. They nicknamed him “Dragon” and there is speculation that it is a previously unknown ancestor of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. They also identified additional findings at the site as a mammal-type reptile, dicynodon, as well as the remains of other flying dinosaurs.

So there you have a brief summary of our dinosaur excitement so far this summer. I also included a quick lesson on the four seasons in there without you even noticing (reread the first two paragraphs). I am closing with a video that is a montage of photos from our trip to Laurel, Maryland, some of the animatronic dinosaurs on exhibit at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, as well as photos taken at the Museum of Natural History in Cleveland, Ohio. A special thanks to Jurassic Joe for the music for our dinosaur photo montage. Until next time, enjoy your summer and share your dinosaur stories and discoveries with us below in the comments!

Do następnego czytania…