DIY GEM Mining at Home

          One of Our annual trips is traveling to Canyon Lake Yogi Bear Jelly stone Park. The kiddos favorite activity is to buy a surprise bag filled with gems and sand and pretend like they are mining for gold.
 This year we had to cancel our trip and let our children know that vacationing for now is at a halt.  So my husband and I figured if we can't take them  gem mining then let's build them a temporary mining area. This is a temporary quick solution and we are thinking of coming up with a smaller scale to set up in our backyard for a more permanent solution,but for today's project here our the supplies we used.

-Rock Mineral Fossil  https://amzn.to/2BXi8aZ
-Amber Fossils https://amzn.to/3fqwVt9

-Quickrite sand bag
-Ziplock bags
-Slide
-Swimming Pool Pump
-Storage Tote
-Drill or any other item to create a hole on the tote
- Wood for the gem sifter. We used pallet wood because we live near a light shop that let us have their pallets that were in their alley for free. Feel free to use any wood you have on hand.

First thing hubby did was assemble the sifters. To create a square his measurements were 10 inches by 10 inches then he added handles by screwing 2 more small boards on top. 

Then I added the heavy duty mesh. I used what we had leftover from a previous project although the openings were a tad big I decided to double up to create smaller openings. So a smaller opening for the mesh squares is best.

HERE IS MY YOU TUBE VIDEO SO YOU CAN CHECK OUT!