Rocks & Minerals Homeschool Class

One of the advantages of homeschooling is the ability to really engage in whatever is most interesting to the child being homeschooled. Davis has always been interested in anything to do with science and nature so when I saw a post on a Facebook homeschool group I'm a part of about a class on rocks and minerals, I immediately said we'd be there.

This class was planned and scheduled by a fellow homeschool mom who has boys very close to the same ages as my boys so I knew this would be a great one for Davis and Tyrion.  Of course Davis got a lot more out of it than Tyrion but it was still fun for Tyrion to have the chance to touch and pick up a variety of different rocks and just be around other kids learning things at the same time.

Between Davis and I we took a lot of pictures so I'm going to let them do most of the talking for us.

First up are pictures of the tools used to mine rocks and crystals. 

The kids each got to choose a few rocks from this bin and Jim, the man running the class, told them what kind of rock they had and explained a few of the qualities and uses for each rock. And yes, they got to bring them home. 

We all learned that mica is used in both microwaves and hair dryers to insulate the heating elements.

And Tyrion just thought it was fun to look through.  

This board held a wide variety of the rocks he talked about.

And this one showed the difference between raw, unfinished rocks and their polished counterparts that would be used for jewelry or decorations.

These look like ordinary, though very pretty rocks. 

Until you shine a blacklight on them, they're naturally fluorescent. 

These were some of Davis' favorites. 

This class was taught by Jim Pecora who is a Crystal Rock Artist, Author, Lecturer and Miner.  You can see a selection of the crystals, rocks and jewelry he has for sale at Crystal Rock Arts.