Thrifty Crystals

One of the things we enjoy doing while camping is yard saling and thrift storing. I guess it’s just part of the whole frugal thing. I usually shop here for back to school clothes for myself while we’re camping over the summer. I usually end up with the entire back of an SUV piled slap full of clothes for about 60-75 bucks. I just can’t see spending 25 DOLLARS on a shirt I can buy at the thrift store for 25 CENTS. You know?

When we were recently at the thrift store, I spotted a crystal growing kit for $3. It had been partially used, but still was over half full of stuff.

An opportunity for some roadschooling and some science fun? By all means!

Mixing up the crystals and finding rocks to grow them on was fun, but crystal growing is not one of those immediate gratification things… at all. The kids were like, “So, we let it sit… for a week? What does it do NOW?”

We mixed and let everything sit… as directed, I SWEAR. Really. I did follow the directions. For what they were worth.

See? He is TOTALLY AMAZED!

We had one quick success. The red geode grew beautifully in the listed amount of time. It’s gorgeous.

The blue and green crystals were supposed to grow in 3-4 days…. Nuh uh. After almost two weeks, I have a blue colored rock and some cool sparkling green crystals that really formed in the bottom of the cup.

The white and clear crystals were supposed to take a week to grow. Covered.

After almost double the recommended time, there was much of nothing. So, we took the covers off, put them in the sun, and left them alone. I figured we’d be tossing all the little liquid filled containers in another day or two.

After a day, the white crystals bloomed… all over the place. They are totally awesome looking. Reminds me of coral.

The clear crystals… nada. Zilch. Not the mama. Jack Diddly Squat.

If you’re keeping count, that’s 2 successes, 2 failures, and 1 so-so response.

Not bad for 3 bucks.

DISCLAIMER: Dad and I enjoyed this much more than the kiddos did. We can delay our gratification, uh huh!

Simple Mom has some great tips for thrifting here: http://simplemom.net/5-must-know-tips-on-thrifting/