Activities: Mine! Mine! Mine!

Let your kid mine treasures out of handmade rocks.

Submitted by
Kayla Chong

Take your kids on a mining adventure. What? No diamond mine in the backyard? Make do with some plastic bling and rocks they can make themselves. (If only you could "make" Tiffany-style "rocks" that come in little blue boxes, then you'd be in business.)

A miner:
Your kid.
⅓ cup of salt
⅓ cup of sand:
No need to go to the beach; just snag a cupful out of your kid's sandbox.
1 cup of flour
1 cup of used coffee grinds:
You might have to save up a few days' worth, unless you drink a lot of coffee.
1 cup of water
A big mixing bowl
Treasures:
Small plastic toys or jewelry.
A hammer

Pull up your kid's (and your) sleeves. This could get messy.
Have your kid pour the flour, salt, sand and coffee grounds into a big mixing bowl and stir it up with a wooden spoon, or even better, with her hands!
Slowly start trickling water into the mixture. You probably won't need the entire cup so make sure you pour slowly and have her stir well between trickles. You'll know your dough is done when it's the texture of thick, dry play dough.
Have your kid grab a big wad of dough. Choose a treasure and wrap the dough around the treasure. Have her roll the dough between her hands until the treasure is completely hidden. She can shape the dough like a rock (or like a ball, or a heart, or whatever).
Continue making treasure-hiding rocks until all the dough is gone and all the treasures are all hidden.
Set your rocks somewhere cool to dry.
After four days, your rocks should be hard.
Take your little miner and your hammer outside. Set the rocks on a hard surface (like the street or the sidewalk, not your patio table) and then hand your kid the hammer.
She'll get a kick out of smashing open the rocks to find the treasures hidden inside. Just remind your partner not to get any "creative" ideas. You do not want to hammer next year's Valentine's Day gift out of a pile of homemade rocks.