The Quest

One day all the children aged 3-12 were digging holes in the pea gravel to see how deep they could make them.  As they were digging many of them were also collecting rocks that they found interesting or unique. Two of the girls decided to use the hole they had made to create an “underground church” and recruited the others to collect the supplies they would need.  They began by using sticks to reinforce the edges of the hole.

Suddenly, one of the girls realized that she had misplaced her “pretty rock” and the whole group stopped construction and began searching for it.  As she provided details about the size, shape and color of the prized rock the other continued to scour the 350 square foot area of pea gravel without any thought to the chances of finding the correct one.  Their optimism was amazing and their efforts paid off when they located the “smooth rock that looked like a broken sea shell”.

They now returned to complete construction of the church.  They assigned roles including “architect”, “designer”, and “supplier”.  They put a sturdy roof on the hole and added steps, decorations, and fancy stonework until an hour later they completed their project.

As they admired their work and asked me to take a group photo I heard “Hey, where’s my rock?"....