How to Select Rocks and Minerals for Kids

Collecting rocks and minerals can be a fun diversion for kids. Kids often feel like detectives in search of their next clues as they hunt through fields, forests and river beds for rocks and minerals.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Money
• Journal
• Display and storage cases
• Rocks and minerals
• Field guides
• Cleaning tools
• Labeling tools

Select and Find Rocks and Minerals

1. Purchase specimens. Kids can find minerals for sale at museum stores, through catalogs or on the Internet.

2. Make it an adventure! Take your child on a road trip in search of different minerals and rocks. Often, minerals are specific to a particular site or geographical area.

3. Visit a quarry. Some quarries are open to the public and the price of admission generally covers all of the digging supplies as well as a bucket for your treasures!

4. Select brightly colored rocks and minerals. Since kids are highly visual, they are likely to remember the names of turquoise, malachite (which is green) and amethyst.

5. Use a field guide. Field guides can help point you and your child in the direction of ideal excavation areas and the types of specimens found there.

6. Explore the great outdoors. Rocks and minerals can be found almost anywhere--near bodies of water, in the woods, at parks or in fields.

7. Go for pieces that look interesting. Kids are usually apt to select eye-catching pieces. When you bring them home, you can use the mineral chart, field guide or even Moh's hardness scale to identify them.

Bring Rocks and Minerals Home

1. Buy books about minerals. Kids can learn to store, organize, clean and display their mineral collections.

2. Clean the minerals promptly. You can make use of common household tools like tweezers, alcohol and cotton swabs.

3. Buy storage or display containers. Acid-free containers can preserve rocks and minerals in storage and display cases which are made of glass to keep dust away.

4. Label and organize the specimens. You can use small dabs of white paint and a dark marker to number the pieces.

5. Encourage your child to keep a rock and mineral log for the entire collection. By staying on top of the latest additions, your child will surely enjoy the collection for years to come!

6. Protect the specimens. Clean them periodically and limit their exposure to artificial light, which can be damaging.

Tips & Warnings

• Always accompany your child on rock and mineral excavations. Many of the places where specimens can be found are remote or even dangerous, as in a quarry.