We inherited a rock collection last year when my dad passed away. Almost immediately, I shared it with the big explorer (being mindful to save some pieces of the collection for the little explorer, of course), who lovingly turned over each and every item in the collection, finding beauty in the way only a little boy can.
The collection earned a spot on the bookcase in his room and has since seen little use.
Until I heard about Trailmix.Net’s Rock of the Month Club.
How It Works
The folks at TrailMix.Net make it easy to get started – even for those of us who know little to nothing about rocks and minerals. Here’s a great description of exactly how the rock club works.
One of my favorite features of the club is the parent notes/activities/experiments which offer fun ideas for experiments using the items in your collection. These make it easy for geology novices like myself to help kids learn something new from their growing collection. It’s like getting a free teacher’s guide with every new rock!
Our Notes From the Field
The big explorer loves getting mail. So when his welcome kit arrived – complete with a nifty storage container for future samples – he was thrilled. It took him all of two minutes to grab a pencil and write down the name of the two samples he had, quartz and sodalite, and drop them each into their new home.
When our third rock in the collection arrived, we conducted an experiment to learn about an important physical property of rocks: hardness. First, I asked the big explorer which he thought was harder, the quartz or the apatite. Then we tested his hypothesis by scratching the quartz with the apatite, then the reverse.
Each month, the big explorer devours the rock fact sheets. He’s even started trying to identify the rocks from grandpa’s collection. So far we’ve discovered that grandpa had a piece of quartz, which now sits alongside the big explorer’s own sample in his collection box.
The Details
Mike and Sara Barlow of TrailMix.Net aim to blend education with adventure to help kids learn easier, faster and better. That’s another reason I love this rock collection – it’s all about making sure your kids have fun while they’re learning.
And the price? Less than $6 a month (and yes, it is easy enough to cancel your order at any time).
Later this week, I’ll be sharing my 2010 holiday gift list for little nature explorers and you can bet the Rock of the Month Club will be on it. If you have a young rock lover in your life, I highly recommend it.
This review is based on our personal experience. I did not receive any compensation for sharing my opinions. But I’m such a big fan of TrailMix.Net that I couldn’t help but gush a bit. If you have any questions, read my full disclosure policy.
@Laure: Thanks for sharing on FB! Kinda jealous you've got a soil expert in the family. :o)
This rocks! Great post Debi. I shared it on my family hiking Facebook page. My dad is a soil scientist so whenever we go hiking he always picks up rocks and talks about them. Now I want to sign up for that club too. Aren't you a cool nature mama!
@Marc: Sounds like you've had a long love affair with rocks. Hope you've passed it on to your kiddos.<br /><br />@Roy: Ditto.<br /><br />@Crystal: My hubby lost his beloved baseball card collection, so I can imagine how your hubby feels. You should definitely keep this idea in mind for when Shane is 5 or 6. It has been a lot of fun!
My husband had a rock collection when he was a little boy, and is still so very disappointed that he no longer knows what happened to it. Shane's been showing quite an interest in gathering rocks — the more the better! We have a little nature table where they've been piling up, mostly gravel and pebbles. A rock of the month club sounds like such a fun idea in a year or so!
That looks like a great activity for the kids, Debi! I am a big fan of TrailMix.net, too – I wish we lived closer to SacTown, so I could visit their store. I'm a big fan of Mike's (@trailmixnet) Twitter feed, too!
Great post! The Rock of the Month club sounds really cool, and I'll bet the kids will like it too! I supposed to be doing some holiday gift shopping, and seeing as though this gave me a great idea for a gift, I'll count this as part of my 'gift research'.<br /><br />Reading this also brought back lots of great memories of exploring and learning about rocks in grade school. Then,
@Juliet: You are one cool outdoor teacher! What a great idea to incorporate rocks into the outdoor classroom. Thanks for sharing!<br /><br />@Mike: Thank YOU for your wonderful work, your amazing store (which I long to visit) and your generous spirit. Keep it up! 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing, Debi! The Rock of the Month is by far our favorite thing that we do in the store and feedback from parents (good or bad) is sooooooooo valuable!! I'm glad to hear we are on target and we will keep it up!! -mike
This post rocks! I find that in schools, rock projects are very exciting and successful. I remember one day in one school, the children decided to try and see if they could make a rock hot enough to melt… they tried cooking them, boiling them, smashing them up, etc. And discovered just how difficult it is to get the temperatures high enough.