We took a day of school and drove down to the Austin Annual Gem and Mineral show. It was SUCH a fun field trip! Our tickets were sponsored by Silicon Labs so we only had to pay parking.
It was so incredible. There were paleontologists with tables of fossils, and they let the children take turns cleaning the fossils or chisel them out of the raw rock with vibrating hand tools. They really loved it. It's so much cooler than playing with a store-bought dinosaur kit with fake plaster bones. They were each given a free fossil to take home- super neat!
Another highlight was the polished rock area. You could pay fifty cents to have 2 minutes of digging through buckets and collecting polished rocks. This was the very favorite spot for our family. Matthew has a rock tumbler at home, and we've tumbled rocks before. That process take 6-8 WEEKS for just a handful of rocks to be polished. Matthew couldn't get over what a great deal it was to pay half a dollar for a bag full of beautiful rocks. We went through this station several times and the children had a blast. After the timed dig, they could compare their treasures to a display board showing the names of all the specimens.
My personal favorite part of the show was an art display of collected minerals representing food. A large buffet table was set up with dishes and dishes of 'food'- but everything was made from rocks. It was so incredible to see how real many of the items looked. We spent a long time oohing and ahhing over the pieces and talking with the artist. They travel the country putting up this display.
We took along picnic lunches and spent the rest of the afternoon at the Nature and Science Center in Zilker Park. The children brought bags full of items to trade at the trade counter, and Sarah brought home a coyote skull. It's funny to see it in her dainty room next to her other treasures- porcelain dolls, lace doilies, flowers, and ponies. The skull doesn't seem to really fit in, but it sums up Sarah's personality very well. One of our chickens died this year, and Sarah was so excited at the thought of collecting the bones. She has a bag of chicken bones right now, waiting to be traded at the Nature and Science Center. She's such a unique girl, and we love her.
1 comment:
Hello~
I just found your blog today, and wanted to tell you how much I have enjoyed reading it! It seems that you and I have some things in common, when it comes to having a "no nonsense" kind of attitude! :0) We are also a homeschooling family and are enjoying it so much! I am excited to read more from you! Thanks for sharing it! :0)
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