Do you have a little geologist? My kids are fascinated by rocks. They have jars and containers full of them. We recently moved into a house with a very nice backyard. In the back corner of the yard is a retaining ditch which the children have turned into their personal excavation site. They don’t find anything too exciting, but they have tons of fun digging in the GA clay finding large pieces of quartz and granite (the two most common rocks in GA). Recently during a cold, rainy day, we decided to explore the children’s rock collections more closely. Armed with some of the helpful resources below, our rock collections and helpful tools (magnifying glass, nail, penny, a piece of glass, measuring tape, and a magnet) we were ready to get to work. We had lots of fun and covered science, history, geography, math, reading and writing for 2 hrs.
Conducting a Rock Study
1) I made this Rock Observation Journal page for my children which you can grab for FREE.
2) Rock treasure box idea and free printable from Handbook of Nature Study
3) Types of Rocks & Rocks Cycle Video for Kids by makemegenius.com on YouTube
5) History
Scribe – Rocks and Minerals on CurrClick
6) The Students Elements of Geology and Geology and Minerals Unit Study (Kindle)
8) Geology.com – great website for investigating rock and mineral types
Kathy Balman quit her full-time job in July 2011 to become a stay at home/homeschool mom to her two children. Besides being a full-time mother she is also a devoted wife, blogger and a social media manager. She lives in Georgia just north of the hustling and bustling city of Atlanta. When she is not tending to children she enjoys blogging, scrapbooking, hiking, geocaching, arts/crafts, traveling and watching movies. Read more about her homeschool journey on her blog,
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