Bedtime Reading for Exploration and Discovery

Last night's bedtime reading was from a colorful, picture-intensive, but still rather technical Geology book that Ian borrowed from his school library. However, there was nothing "academic" about Ian's interest. He wanted to get directly to the burning question of how to find and mine diamonds, so I introduced him to the concept of "Index," where we looked up diamonds, and read the three pages in the book, associated with that topic.

We learned that there are three kinds of mines - I forget the technical terms, but basically there are hole-in-the-ground mines, deep-underground-requiring-shafts mines, and stripped-out-of-the-side-of-the-hill-in-layers mines. Ian believes that the mine that he and Golden are working on is of the third category. [And yes, he recently had Golden out there, cheerfully digging away with him, four fluffy paws and two hands all laboring for a single goal.]

In any case, Ian was extremely happy with the practical outcome of our bedtime reading. At least a couple of times, he said things like, "I really learned something!" and "This will really help me!"

I was pleased that we could read something that would have direct, and potentially very lucrative, application in our own lives. The upcoming Great American Diamond Bonanza will be informed not just by instinct and determination, but by rigorous scientific research.

(December 6, 2010)