My daughter found a weird rock in our yard and asked if it was a dinosaur egg

I had to explain it was just a big piece of quartzite, but her question got me looking up local geology maps of our neighborhood in Boise for the first time.

3 comments

3 Comments

alices8923d ago

Isn't it amazing how a kid's question can make you see your own backyard in a whole new way? I remember when my son was little and everything was a fossil or a treasure. That sense of wonder is so pure. It sounds like you turned a simple question into a real learning moment for both of you. Looking up the local geology is such a cool idea, I bet you found some interesting stuff. It really makes you appreciate the ground under your feet.

parkera2221d ago

That library rock guide idea from paige86 is smart. I got a cheap hand lens after a similar thing with my nephew, and it changes everything. You can actually see the crystal shapes in stuff like that quartzite. Alice89 is right about that shift in how you see your yard, it goes from just grass to a whole hidden landscape. Did the geology map show anything surprising right under your house, like an old riverbed or something?

paige8623d ago

Yeah that part about seeing your backyard in a new way is so true. My kid brought me a weird lump of concrete once, totally convinced it was a meteorite. We ended up getting one of those simple rock ID guides from the library and spent a whole afternoon just poking around the lot. It's wild what you find when you actually look down.