Ever since he read that rocks and stones contain minerals, he is on a mission to find, collect and extract these minerals.
Parents are supposed to encourage curiosity, allow for experimentation and engage with their children’s need for exploration. Research constantly tells engagements and experiments help involved and self-motivated learning. We are taught to ask ‘wonder‘ questions, ponder with them and let them off for independent research.
I want to be that kind of parent.
So, I bought him books on rocks and minerals the moment he mentioned his interest.
We let him watch some videos too. I even asked him to take a day off from school so we could visit Kolkata’s Indian Museum which has an amazing collection of rocks and metals among other things.
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| Exploration trip, Indian Museum, Kolkata |
All was well…
Slowly my house started becoming a hoard of stones.
Wherever we turned, I could find stones and pebbles — small, medium, large, extra large, white, brown, grey.
I tried to be patient.
People who know me personally can imagine what a big struggle that can be for me.
So ya, I think I fall in the ‘supportive’ category!
When a stone came flying out of nowhere, I figured support was great, but mother mode had to be activated.
All the stones were located and heaped into a bucket into the bathroom.
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| The Stone Collector |
I wish that would be the end of the story. Three days of travel and I come back home to my find missing pieces in my jewellery!
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| Crushed in the search for something more Precious! |
Experiments had moved from the streets to my jewellery case. Not just were stones missing, now they have been crushed by a hammer, to find if they had something “cool” inside them!
I was equally crushed as I found broken pieces of my stones in the Stone Collector!
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| Pieces of my Jewellery alongside pebbles and rocks |
So yeah, I am all for science and exploration but metals and extraction processes in my house ended last night!
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whoah this blog is wonderful i really like reading your articles. Keep up the great paintings! You realize, a lot of people are hunting round for this info, you could help them greatly.