Aggressive Science

I’ve been looking for fun and educational activities for my oldest son and I to do together. Things have been rough between us in the past years. There was a point that I didn’t see him at all because I was borderline homeless. So trying to reconnect has been challenging. 

Things are definitely better now, but his favorite human in the entire world moved to OK with his wife and their kids. It broke his heart and in turn mine. His father and I co-parent beautifully alongside his wife. My son facetimes him every night and even plays online games with him. While things are getting  better, I can’t help but feel as though there is some resentment from him. 

There are tons of reasons I decided to keep him here. Same school, family, supports, and friends. I could go on about the psychological wellbeing of a child in a comfortable and stable network. But I won’t. I am in no way shape or form a medical professional. It just felt right. 

All of a sudden a discovery science kit with geodes came across my screen. We love all things crystal in my house. This is one thing my son and I both enjoy. We research stones and all of their different properties. I threw it into my cart and decided I would check it out later. 

A couple days go by, and we find out his Nana passed away. This was his Pop-Pop’s mom. My son has seemed so down since we got the news. He says he doesn’t want to talk about it, so I’m hoping he’ll come around eventually on his own.   He understands death, but he doesn’t totally understand what it does to people. I used this situation as a learning experience to talk to him about compassion. When people we love lose someone that they love, we should be there for them. That night his grandma and pop called him to see how he’ s doing and that was the perfect time for him to check in on them. He had a great talk with them, and after they hung up he was crying. I didn’t understand at all. He claims that he wasn’t that close to his Nana, but he was bawling his eyes out. He didn’t want to talk about it so he crawled onto my lap and we just sat there for a little. I didn’t know what to do or say. This was the best response I could come up with. Once he went upstairs I decided to get him the Geode Kit. It went into my cart and shipped by the next morning.

The kit was delivered two days later. When we got home, I opened it and checked out the instructions. All you needed was the kit and a hammer. As soon as I laid my youngest down, here comes my oldest with the kit in hand and a huge smile. As promised I walked into the kitchen with him and we took the contents out.

Included in this kit were a bag of 10 geodes, goggles (Safety first), two crystal displays, and a magnifying glass. He was slightly disappointed that the box did not come with a hammer. I laughed and asked him to grab the hammer from my toolkit.

After reading the instructions, it turned out that this kit was pretty simple. Take hammer to rock and hope it breaks open. Parental guidance highly suggested. We took out the first geode and laid it into the cardboard in the box. We did all this on the kitchen floor in hopes to make cleanup easier. He grabbed the hammer and swung at the rock in front of him. There was a very loud bang so I decided the kitchen was not our best idea to do this. After some research involving chizzles and socks as alternative geode breaking tactics, I decided we would just go outside.

He laid the very same rock on the sidewalk and with both hands on the hammer, he swung fast and hard. The rock broke open into small little shiny pieces. The sheer joy in his eyes overpowered my paranoid motherly instincts. He did have goggles on after all.

He continued swinging on rock after rock. Some were easy to break, and others required more hits and more power. He laughed and got out so much pent up aggression. Aggression I didn’t even know was there. I’m sure there are other less messy ways to go about this, but this is what worked for us.

Once we were done we went inside with the shattered geode pieces. He grabbed the booklet and sat for about 30 minutes talking to me about which rock had which name or classification. He gave me a small piece for my shelf and asked to take the book to school with him to show everyone in class.

That night I put him to bed feeling just a little bit better. Obviously this isn’t a way to fix everything in my tiny human’s world, but it was a start. It alleviated just enough pressure that he could laugh freely and go to sleep. That was good enough for me.

Since then, I’ve had a few people ask about where they can find The National Geographic Geodes. It Includes 10 geodes, Goggles, Detailed Learning Guide & 2 Display Stands – Great STEM Science Gift for Mineralogy & Geology Enthusiasts of Any Age.

Check out the geode kit below:

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Break Open 10 Premium Geodes – Includes Goggles, Detailed Learning Guide & 2 Display Stands – Great STEM Science Gift for Mineralogy & Geology Enthusiasts of Any Age

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