Book review: 'Little Kids First Big Book: Rocks, Minerals, and Shells' is a dynamite learning tool

Have you started school yet? We're starting our 7th year of homeschooling on Monday. 

I had to count twice to make sure it really is our 7th year. It doesn't seem like we've been homeschooling that long, but math doesn't lie!

One of the subjects my kids are looking forward to learning about the most is geology. We haven't studied this particular subject before, but I'm already anticipating it being a favorite, due to my kids' love of rocks. We'll be using this curriculum for our spine and I have a National Geographic geode kit sitting on a shelf, making my kids crazy because they wanna crack open the geodes so bad! They keep asking if we can just skip ahead to the lesson that talks about geodes. I love how excited they are.

Needless to say, when Little Kids First Big Book: Rocks, Minerals, and Shells showed up at our house, I thought it was perfect timing. While this book claims it's for ages 4-8, my 13-year-old has said it is one of his favorite books ever. And I think I agree with him.

Jam-packed with amazing color photographs, Rocks, Minerals, and Shells also does a fantastic job teaching about the different kinds of things that make up our earth in a highly engaging fashion. 

I really appreciated how chapter one focused on what actually makes up rocks and shells. Rocks=minerals, shells=skeletons of mollusks. Then it explains what minerals are. This chapter is the shortest one in the book.

Chapter two then talks about the differences of rocks. Sandstone, granite, meteorites, limestone, and alllll the other kinds of rocks are mentioned here. There's just enough info given that I felt like I understood the subject, but not so much info that I was overwhelmed. 

Chapter three is about minerals. Honestly, I didn't think I would enjoy anything after reading all about the cool rocks, but I was wrong! There are more than 5,000 minerals on Earth and reading about and seeing so many amazing photos of them was fascinating. I learned about malachite, sulfur, diamonds, and labradorite, to name just a few. Speaking of labradorite, did you know it changes colors?

Chapter four is all about seashells. Univalves and bivalves are explained and then really cool shelled animals are focused on. The Queen Conch can live for 30 years; that seems like a long time for an animal! Some giant clams weigh more than grown men! 

I especially appreciated the photos of different locations, highlighting some of the places all these shells, minerals, and rocks can be found. I now want to visit a mosque in Iran, to see the turquoise there, Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway, to see the basalt columns, and the western Pacific Ocean, to try to find a Chambered Nautilus in the wild. I think we may need a bigger vacationing budget...

Little Kids First Big Book: Rocks, Minerals, and Shells is one of my favorite books that has come into our home. With clean language and pages of learning, this book is one we will keep for a long time. 

 

Book Breakdown:

128 pages with mostly full-color photography

Best for ages: 6-adult

Educational factor: extremely high

Moral content: this book is purely secular and doesn't take any kind of stand on moral issues