The World’s Most Fascinating Rock Collection {+ giveaway}
Many years ago, when Brianna was probably still in elementary school, we did a unit study on geology. Now, there’s a strong possibility that I just didn’t know what I was looking for, but I wasn’t sure where to find a wide variety of rock specimens in our area.
So I did what any industrious homeschooling mom would do – I went on one of my Yahoo groups (because this was long before most of us had heard of Facebook, y’all) and arranged a rock exchange.
It was actually a great idea and we got a huge variety that we still have to this day and have used for several science lessons over the years. However, with the exception of one set from a mom who clearly knew about rocks – all her specimens came in individual bags, labeled with the name of the rock and an interesting fact – I’m not sure how accurately we identified many of them.
That’s why I was so excited to learn about The World’s Most Fascinating Rock Collection.
What is The World’s Most Fascinating Rock Collection?
The World’s Most Fascinating Rock Collection is a monthly subscription service in which members will receive one rock a month – clearly labeled and with lots of interesting facts. And an information brochure. And an ID sticker. And a hands-on project idea. And an activity.
There are lots of subscription box services available now for just about every topic imaginable. However, the difference that makes The World’s Most Fascinating Rock Collection unique is it’s
“…not a random assortment of retail items. Instead, they are a series of installments in a carefully planned rock and mineral collection designed to increase the child’s understanding of rocks and minerals, along with key earth science principles each specimen represents.”
Each monthly installment includes:
- The featured rock of the month chosen to represent a specific area of rock study or an earth science principle
- An information card, which is actually more of a brochure of each rock, featuring facts about the rock along with related science material
- Instructions for a hands-on project, such as how to make a compass or fossil. Materials are not included, but they are inexpensive and easily obtainable.
- An activity such as a word search, maze, or origami craft
- A sticker of that month’s featured rock
- A clear, stackable collection case for storing and adding to your child’s growing collection
- A collection box, sent with the first shipment, for storing each month’s shipment. The collection case also includes a kid-friendly magnifying glass for getting up close and personal with each rock and Geo, the super-cute collection mascot.
Who is The World’s Most Fascinating Rock Collection for?
The funny thing about rocks is that they’re fascinating to all ages. We were sent the entire set to review and I left it sitting out on our table. Josh and Megan both stopped to just randomly look through the rocks.
While the collection was designed for kids ages 5-13, I think there are no age-limits to rock collecting. (The collection is not recommended for children younger than 5 due to potential choking hazards.) Parents and kids alike will discover new facts and interesting trivia about rock through this collection. This subscription is perfect for:
- Homeschooling parents – build a collection for a future unit on geology or earth science course or just use each month’s installment for some interest-led learning time
- Teachers who wish to provide learning centers (There would not, of course, be enough stickers or paper activities for an entire classroom, but the hands-on activity instructions are just that – instructions – so they would be easily adaptable for a classroom.)
- Grandparents to share with their grandkids
- Kids of all ages (except, you know, not those under 5) and stages and educational backgrounds
What did we think?
As I mentioned, we all took turns digging through the complete set from The World’s Most Fascinating Rock Collection. There was a wide assortment of rocks including:
- Geode
- Iron Pyrite
- Gem stones
- Fossil
- Lodestone
- Gypsum
- Meteorite
The assortment was varied enough to work well for just about any earth science study on rocks. The only favorite of ours that wasn’t included was flint, which is always fun to strike in the dark. However, there were many varieties that we’ve wished we’d had a sample of in previous studies, such as gypsum.
I thought the information cards were outstanding. Not only are they sturdy and filled with interesting facts, but they are the perfect size for filing away on our bookshelf for future reference.
The collection cases are great for stacking and keeping your rock collection together in one place – not that any of you have probably ever dealt with misplaced pieces of a school lesson. {ahem} I think I might have preferred a divided collection box, though that wouldn’t work well with the subscription service since I’m sure the stacking cases also help protect the rocks during shipment.
That being said, it would be easy to transfer the rocks to your own collection case and the accompanying stickers would be the perfect size to fit in the kind of divided box I have in mind, which is great for people like me who might forget what each specimen is after awhile. A geologist I am not.
The activities and hands-on projects are great tie-ins to the concepts being taught in each month’s installment. Besides, y’all know how I feel about hands-on learning.
If you’ve got a kid who loves rocks or will be doing a rock study anytime in the near future (which probably means everyone, since it’s been my experience that you’d have to work pretty hard to avoid the high-interest topic of geology), I think you’ll be pleased with The World’s Most Fascinating Rock Collection.
If this sounds like something you and your kids would enjoy, you’ll be happy to hear that the folks at The World’s Most Fascinating Rock Collection are giving away one 12-month subscription! Follow the directions on the RaffleCopter widget below to enter.
Rules: This giveaway is open to United States residents, ages 18 years and older only. Giveaway ends at 11:59 PM (ET) on Wednesday, September 10. The winner will be selected at random using Random.org via RaffleCopter.
The winner will notified via email and given 72 hours to respond. You must enter a valid email address to win. In the event that the winner cannot be contacted by email or does not respond within 72 hours, the prize will be forfeited and and alternate winner selected.
Click to read the complete rules. By entering this giveaway, you indicate that you have read and agreed to abide by these rules.
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
This looks so cool! Would love to win!
I love geodes. So pretty!
My favorite rock has always been amethyst. I used to have them all over my house. We also love geodes of all types!
What an interesting idea. Spreading out the shipment over several months is a great idea to build excitement. Would love to share this with my kids.
How cool is this? Looks awesome! Thanks for the chance!
Granite and marble. Living in GA you just have to like them both 🙂
I find rocks everywhere, my kids are rock collectors. They are in the van, in my purse, in their rooms, in the dining room, every where. This would be great monthly mail, maybe then we can name some of these rocks. 🙂
I’ve always liked pyrite. I don’t care that it’s not real gold, it’s still shiny! 😉
My son would love this.
Amethyst wins for favorite rock around here (helps to have several February birthdays in the family!). We think rocks rock!
I like lodestones because they are magnetic. 🙂
My kids have always loved rocks and minerals. This looks like a really great collection!
Favorite rock is obsidian, a black shiny one.
I absolutely love sedimentary rocks! I loved geology in college and studying all the rocks and minerals. I am so excited to for our exploration of rocks in our home classroom!!! Thanks for this!
My son loves flint. He is obsessed with making sparks!
We just went through how to identify rocks on time4learning. This would be an interesting tie-in!
Geodes! My kids love rocks. This is great! What a cool service!
We love geodes.
Such a cool giveaway. Thanks for the review!
My boys have rock collections – but we struggle to identify exactly what they are. I love rocks that have been smoothed by years in a river – is there a scientific name for that?
Oh! We would LOVE to win this!
My daughter loves rocks! We have a heart rock collection.
Geode! An ugly duckling on the outside but a miracle on the inside. I’m always amazed by these rocks.
My son, not being the sporty type, would love to get this monthly treasure. Everywhere we go he collects rocks. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to secretly throw concrete chunks over our balcony into our downstairs neighbor’s scant garden. Some have been retrieved by his ever-so-watchful eye to my great dismay. The kid loves rocks.
Hmm….I think that lava rock is really cool.
Both of my daughters have a big rock collection. They love to collect them and crack open geodes. My youngest when she was 2 yrs old last year brought in her agate and pink quartz and pyrite to our co-op for show and tell. This sounds great! Thanks Kris for the opportunity to win.
I like our pet rock.
The fossils are great.
I like good, solid granite. 🙂
My favorite rock is amethyst! My kids are always finding rocks and showing them off. Then again….so is my husband! 🙂
We are big on rocks here in Minnesota. Our sports teams are called the Agates! So my son is a an Agate, which clearly makes it my favorite! 🙂
oooo… This looks fabulous. I… um, I mean my daughter would love this set!
🙂
Thank you for sharing!
I don’t know if I have a favorite rock, but I think my daughter loves anything “crystal”! I find shiny rocks in her pockets and in the washing machine. All. The. Time! I think she would love this subscription!
I remember the days of Yahoo groups! Seems like ages ago though… I guess my favorite rock is amethyst. I’ve always loved the purple hues in it. My son, who would go crazy over this rock collection, would probably say diamond because it’s so valuable…
I love puddingstone. Each one is unique and are geologically fascinating.
We like geodes.
My two love flint as well and are both avid rock collectors
We will study rocks this year and would love to win this! We are not very good at identifying them yet, but we have a lot that we are fond of.
Our favorite rock is malachite
How fun to have a collection
Sapphires are my favorite, mica and geodes come in behind. We just started the geology bits in Paths of Settlement, at which point my youngest announced that she wanted to be a geologist!
My favorite rock is quartz. Thanks for the fun giveaway!
My two children would love this! We have rocks ALL OVER our house!
Wow! This looks wonderful. I may need a subscription for us and for my nephew.
Granite would be our favorite since we live in the Granite State! This would be a great addition to our Paths of Settlement. Thank you.
We are studying rocks this year in our TGTL and the kids can’t wait!
I love that little set that comes with POS, but this would definitely enhance your study.
I do not have a favorite rock, but I think my kids would really dig this collection.
Looks cool. Would love to win this for my kiddos.
I’m fascinated by magnetic rocks.
Dude! This rocks!
Oops! I forgot to put my favorite rock. It is any rock that my kids throw that does not accidentally hit me in the head. Actually, I like agates, because you can see the sun through them.
I love this, we are studying this in first grade science right now.
A favorite rock? Hmmm. Nope. But my toddlers think gravel is just amazing. 🙂
I’m not much of a rock enthusiast but our kiddo has been collecting rocks for years. I’d have to say that my favorite rock would be the ruby. Thanks for doing a giveaway!
I love snowflake obsidian because of the nature of how it is created!
My boys love collecting rocks right now. This would be so fun for them.
My favorite rock is amethyst because it is my birthstone.
My son loves limestone because it remineralizes purified water.
I am a fan of turquoise anything… Especially combined with silver.
I’m always looking for meteorites at the beach. I love them!
Geodes, we love to smash them open
My daughter collects rocks. She can spend hours looking through rocks in the rock beds or rivers or even gravel piles. Her favorite is the geodes. My favorite would be agates.
Can I say diamonds are my favorite rock? LOL
My son loves quartz and I love lapis lazuli. 🙂
I love obsidian, but my DH drives me crazy by collecting unopened geodes. I love the idea of getting a different rock each month to examine and study and learn before getting the next one.
I like crystals. My 13 year old son went through a huge rock phase, though, and he would love this.
I am a big fan of onyx 😉
Would love it! My kids love agates.
I really like the tiger eye rocks. So pretty.
My son is just starting to get into collecting rocks. Everywhere we go he finds a new rock that he gives a unique name. My favorites so far are the “Marshmallow” rock and the “chocolate” rock.
I would have to say that my favorite type of rock is pumice – I love the way it floats.
The gem stones are my favorite.
Great giveaway! Thanks for a chance.
We’re an agate hunting family.
I love geodes! I’m also a big fan of granite (I do live in the Granite State, after all) and mica.
We love geodes and we live in an area that has a lot of them. Just have to find them.
What a great resource! My 12 Yr old loves to collect rocks AND we’re studying geology this year!
I am sorry to say that I don’t know nearly enough about rocks and minerals! I’d love to have a favorite and this would help me to learn about them so I can pick one as my favorite!
My kids love finding all kinds of rocks! Thanks for a chance to win!
I love Amethysts!!
My boys are forever leaving rocks in their pockets! I’m amazed my washer/dryer has lasted as long as it has! We’d have soooo much fun with these if we won them!