How to make frozen dinosaur eggs to thrill your kids: step by step with video

It was such a joy to see my kids' wee faces when they found them. My son is dinosaur-mad!

Here's how to make frozen dinosaur eggs

You can follow our video guide (above) or our super-simple written instructions below:

What you'll need:

• Balloons
• Toy dinosaurs
• Leaves and branches
• Eggshells (optional)

Here's what to do:

• Open the neck of each balloon and push in the toy dinosaurs
• Fill the balloons to about 1/3 full with water and tie the ends
• Put the balloons into the freezer overnight
• In the morning, make a nest in your garden using leaves, branches and egg shells (to look like hatched eggs)
• Take your balloons out of the freezer, snip off the knots and then peel off each balloon. The frozen water now looks like an egg containing a little dinosaur
• Place the eggs on the nest for your children to discover when they go outside

The next fun bit comes with the 'hatching' (aka melting) of the eggs to to reveal the dinosaurs inside.

If the weather's not supplying enough of those hot, sunny, ice-melting rays, your kids can squirt warm water from a bottle or meat baster to slowly melt away the frozen water.

Do remember that just-out-of-the-freezer frozen water is not for touching or handling: skin can 'burn' from prolonged contact with ice.

• Sarah Massey originally posted this idea on the fabulous Family Lockdown Tips & Ideas Facebook group before sharing it with us. You can order a new e-book, £1.99, of the group's best ideas, edited by the group's creator Claire Balkind with all profits going to Barnardo’s charity.

Read more:

• How to make playdough
• How to make eggbox flowers
• How to make a frozen paint ice sticks for toddler art