The more I have studied and learned about rocks, the more I see of our Creator and His evidence of the worldwide flood.  I hope you too will take some time this summer to explore the very interesting world of rocks!

]]> http://shiningdawnbooks.com/2010/07/13/learning-about-rockin-rocks/feed/ 1 http://shiningdawnbooks.com/2009/11/23/life-under-rocks/ http://shiningdawnbooks.com/2009/11/23/life-under-rocks/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:30:58 +0000 Cindy http://shiningdawnbooks.com/?p=809 Our family is studying rocks each week this month during nature study.  We’ve found all sorts of colored rocks, rocks with minerals, layered rocks, weathered rocks and even rocks with fossils!  I’ll write a post  about those finds soon – if not here, then over at Our Journey Westward.

One week’s focus was on life under rocks.  Even as the cooler temperatures are upon us and many critters are finding there way to winter habitats, we have been able to find lots of life!

A mushroom

Lots of earthworms and night crawlers

Evidence of earthworms eating through the soil and aerating it

A slug on the underside of the rock - can you see it?

A giant grub

We also saw centipedes, ants, spiders and a few other unidentified critters.  The kids had fun writing about and drawing their finds on this notebooking page from the Hard as a Rock NaturExplorers unit.

Take a look under the rocks around your house.  What do you find?

Here are my boys venturing out into the field.  When I say we went out right after the rain, that’s exactly what I meant!  LOL  You can see the steaminess of the air in the background.  My camera lens even kept fogging up!  By the end of the walk, my son and daughter were both barefoot in the field because their boots were too heavy with mud to stay on.  :)

We haven’t identified our rock finds yet (and we found a bunch), but here are two pictures to show the variety of colors and textures we were collecting.  I wish the brilliance had shown up better in the pictures.  The top rock is actually very red.

You don’t just come upon rocks in a wet field!  We found at least four toad friends who very graciously allowed us to take pictures.

And take a look at this!  It wasn’t found during the same walk, but a day later in our freshly plowed garden.  We’ve found arrowheads on the farm before, but rarely are they in such good condition!  Caleb (my 9 year old) was trying his hand at a wet field walk on his own – quite a treasure to find, don’t you think?

You can find many, many more nature ideas for rock hunting in the Hard as a Rock NaturExplorer unit!  It’s one of our biggest units because it focuses not only on rocks, but life under rocks as well.  It’s almost like getting two units in one!

Oh, and congratulations to Laurie from the Lexington Homeschool Fair!  She was the winner of our giveaway!

Those of you who are attending the CHEK Convention this weekend, be sure to stop by our booth to register for the giveaway we’re offering there!

~Cindy

My preacher’s wife and I have become wonderful friends.  She also homeschools and we have so much in common otherwise.  Her children were recently studying fossils, so I suggested a short walk on our farm to see if we could find any fossils in the many rocks that are lying around.  I knew we’d find some, but I had no idea that nearly every larger rock we looked at would hold a treasure!

Take a look at some of our finds.  Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly what most of these are, but I’ve made some educated guesses.  My friend’s husband (my preacher) was actually an archaeologist in Israel many years ago!  We’re hoping to have him come on the next fossil hunt to help us make better determinations.

This looked very much like a backbone.

This rock was *covered* in a bone-like material.  We were able to bring a sample home and my preacher felt like it’s probably coral.  Coral in rock on a farm in the middle of Kentucky?  And some say there was no worldwide flood!

These smooth rocks, almost shell-like, were embedded in the rough rock.

These were shells like a snail wears.

Take a look at this impression!  Anyone want to venture a guess?  I’d love to know!

This looked like plant material.

There you have it!  I took tons of pictures, but these were the most varied and interesting.  As moms, we had just as much fun on this nature hunt as our children did – maybe more!  I’d love to hear about your finds after you take a fossil hunt!

You can find this activity suggestion and many more in the Hard as a Rock NaturExplorers unit!

~Cindy