you can call us geeks if you like.

The children are showing an interest in learning more about rocks. I owe this to the BBC and their online game.

My initial thrill at watching them discover the properties of rocks turned to dismay when they started asking for more. More resources, more information, more rocks please, mummy.

So I spent an evening googling and reading. I scoured our book shelves and found one book dedicated to the topic. Other than that nothing of any great note. Google didn't provide much help either. Lots of reading if you like that sort of thing but helloooo, my boys are 5 and 6 years old. Reading isn't top of the list of things they want to do. They want to learn about rocks and minerals by holding them, smelling them and quite probably breaking them.

We have feebly set up a minerals experiment, growing salt crystals but this really isn't cutting it, and sadly appears to be the only experiment I can find online. We are starting a rock collection as advised by Rocks for Kids. The only snag here is I don't have the knowledge to identify any thing other than chalk. This is my standard answer to any thing white, I shall be most upset to learn there are other types of white rock.

There is nothing else for it. I shall have to contact the professionals and see if they can provide us with assistance. Although, I have a horrible feeling that after reading this blog, it may mean standing waist high in mud. Oh well, at least this time it will be for a reason other then EB losing his welly.