Rocks & Minerals

When people find out we're homeschooling, one of the first questions is usually "what curriculum are you using?" This may change in the future, but at this point we are unschooling (i.e. learning by living and playing) and doing interest-led learning, so when one of the boys becomes interested in something, I support and encourage the interest and help them find additional resources and information.

Henry's newest (and biggest) interest right now is rocks and minerals. Luckily for me, this is something I loved as a girl - I still remember the little guide I used to identify the stones I found in my yard or bought from gift shops on vacations. A couple weeks ago, Henry and I went to the local toy shop together and he picked this out:

Over the next couple of days, he made his own rock guides:

He has also been spending a lot of time digging up rocks in our yard and at various parks by himself and with anyone else he can convince to help him!

I had already been planning a trip to DC to see the cherry blossoms, so once Henry became interested in rocks & minerals I added a visit to the Natural History Museum to the itinerary.

 He took a lot of pictures and a video of the exhibit so he could look at everything more closely later.

 After viewing the exhibit, we visited the gift shop where he got "all the rocks you can bag for $6." I also bought him a couple guide books and a DVD for further exploration.

...and this is where my meter had run out so we needed to get to the car fast and I said "every boy who sits in the stroller gets rock candy."

Here he is at home checking out his guide books and counting his rocks. I think he fit almost 30 in that tiny bag!

I am planning a trip to Luray Caverns for future exploration...let's hope his interest in this topic lasts at least until then!