Mobile Mining Experience at Clark's Elioak Farm: The Most Interested My Kids Have Been in Something Non-Destructive

Today, we went to Clark's Elioak Farm in Ellicott City, which everyone knows is awesome if you live around here, by which I mean within 2 hours of this place, since it is so good that it is worth a car trip (and, as a parent of three kids under 4 1/2, I don't say that lightly). Clark's is a magical fairyland slash petting zoo and is always a good time.  We usually go in the Fall for hayrides and so forth but this time we went in the summer and it was better, despite the heat, because it was less crowded and my kids got to spend real quality time with the goats.  Check out these pictures of my happy children.  Keep in mind it was three million degrees out and they still were happy and uncomplaining for the most part.

A baby with a baby goat.  Just die from the cuteness right now.

Happiness is this car with eyes

Much like my younger self, my daughter chooses uncomfortable shoes because they look good

I commune with animals because I am a wild animal

It's like being in a fairytale, similar to their usual life due to the staggering number of child-centered activities I engage in

Whoosh down the slide, yet my hair is unmoving. Hashtag curly.

Anyway, this time, there was a really weird looking set-up in a field, which, upon further investigation, was a Mobile Mining Experience.  Now, what the hell is this, you ask me, because you are a first time reader and are unaware of my ability to go into extreme detail to explain stuff. Here are some pictures first:

Basically, if you have a little rock collector, like my oldest, this is the best activity in the world.  For $8 per child, we purchased the Junior Miner package, which meant each kid got a bucket of sand filled with rocks, ranging from pebbles to large "real" rocks such as rose quartz, amethyst, and labradorite.  They then use the mesh sifter thing (I don't know the vocabulary here, bear with me) to run water through the sand and uncover lots of pebbles and some large and pretty rocks.  My preschooler was delighted by this. Even my second, who is usually easily bored and destructive, got extremely engaged in this activity, quickly figuring out how to swish the water through the mesh and sift her sand to find the hidden rocks.  She was adept with this, like a little spider monkey, and exhibited genuine mining talent. (Perhaps our family will go from PhD to miner in one generation.)

My kids loved getting their rocks to take home in a little bag with their name on it, and liked the help provided by the nice young women who were in charge of giving them their sand bucket.  Both girls were entirely silent and transfixed while sifting.  My husband and I were actually able to converse during this, that's how quiet they were.  Unfortunately, as this is such a rare occurrence, we had forgotten each other's names and had to use the 20 minutes of silence to introduce ourselves to each other.  (He is pretty interesting and maybe in another couple of years we can continue getting to know one another.)

After the rocks were all found and cleaned, my preschooler listened attentively to the friendly owner of the company, Tom Cummins, explain what each of her rocks were, but my toddler refused to listen and remained obsessively engaged in the sifting (future geologist?  Or future obsessive compulsive disorder?  You say tomato, I say tomahto).  I convinced my daughter to put her bag of rocks in the bottom of the stroller so she wouldn't lose it, but this took some effort because she loved holding the rocks and looking at them.

Baby loves rocks too.  Yes, I know baby CPR and no he didn't eat any.

Anyhoo, from an adult perspective, Mobile Mining Experience is a good deal.  You get a great experience that easily lasts a blessedly silent half hour, and is novel and educational to boot; a lot of rocks, which can then be used to do crafts with, to give to friends, or to rearrange into different piles compulsively if you're a toddler; and a chart used to identify your rocks, all for $8.  Usually I prefer to spend $8 on things like a kids meal that my kids throw directly on the floor, so you can see that this is a superior deal.  Before you head over to Clark's Farm, make sure it's a day that the Mobile Mining Experience is there, so check their facebook page.

Mobile Mining Experience, and of course, Clark's Elioak Farm, thank you for a great day!  I would take this "staycation" over a vacation with kids any day of the week.  (I would also have surgery without anesthesia rather than take another family vacation, so maybe that's not a good comparison point, but my intention was to highlight how enjoyable I found this experience.)

Note: I received nothing for free for this review, but the silence of my children was priceless.