Scratch Patch – Earth’s Minerals

The Scratch Patch is sadly now closed!!! :(:(:(:(:(

Alas, they have closed. My children were too old for this place when they opened, but it seemed fun. I wish them well. Kinda hard to rate a place when it is no longer open, but «methinks not» is true when you can’t go there anymore.

Here’s how it works: you go into the little house and pay a small admission. Then you grab a basket, take off your shoes, and head back behind the counter to 2 little rooms whose floors are entirely covered in all sorts of tumbled rocks. If you want, you can buy a bag (there are a few sizes to choose from) to fill up with the rocks you’d like to bring home. You dig through the rocks and put your favorites in your basket, later to decide which ones you want to bring home in the bag you picked out. You can also carry along a little «cheat sheet» with the names of each type of rock and the place it is found in nature, just to add a little educational element to the treasure hunting.
I realize this may not sound all that exciting, but you would be amazed how addictive it can be to search through all those colorful tumbled rocks to find just the right gems you want to take home. This is a really cool, unique activity for kids and adults. It’s great that you can bring something home with you to remember your visit, too. Maybe you’ll keep your new rock collection as is, but who knows? It could be the start of a cool new art or garden project or some extra fabulous new piece of jewelry!

I brought some kids here, based on the reviews I’ve seen on the internet. I didn’t have the same good time as any of the other reviewers.
First of all, I tried to go the day before, but it was closed. Make SURE you know when they are open, as it seems to change from time to time.
I got there, and it was crowded. The lady working there said it was always busy at this time (11am-​12pm-​ish), and it would be «just her and the rocks» later. Probably because all the 0−3-year-olds are at home taking naps! If I arrived there at 11am, I wanted to be there at 11, and we couldn’t come back later. So we squeezed in.
I love crystals and all that stuff! I was ready to be amazed being completely surrounded by them. But it was actually pretty painful to walk and sit on the stones.
We ended up having to leave after 45 minutes or so, and the lady working there commented about how we weren’t there very long. Even if I could have stayed as long as I wanted, I don’t think we would have been there much longer. The kids were losing interest. But it felt kind of intrusive of her to tell me how long I should be there.
The kids did have a good time, though, I think. And they like their rocks. But there are a lot of stores that sell them.

I was looking for something different for my son’s 8^th birthday party. I found the Scratch Patch through a website. It was perfect! I think 8 years old is a great age for a place like this. Not only was it fun, but also quite educational. I learned a few things myself. The owners, who hosted the party for us, knew exactly how to keep things moving and were very friendly and helpful. Their enthusiasm for what they’re doing was apparent. They made my son feel really special, and made it easy for me to provide a fun, unique experience for him and his friends.

It’s raining today and I need to entertain a 4 and 2 year-​old. A google search for «indoor kids activities Seattle» turned this up.
They had a blast. The made rock angels. They got a little bag of polished stones to take home. The younger one had a little trouble grasping the «no throwing» part but he did fine. The older one started picking things up and asking me where they were from and matching them on the card.
Rock On!

I brought my four year old niece and she *loved* it. I won the «best present in the whole wide world» award. What I love about this place is how many teaching opportunities it bring while playing. They have a big sheet you use to match up the rocks you find; it gives the name and county of origin. Then they have a huge map you can use to go look up where the countries are located. She was a little young to care about the countries, but she loved matching up the stones and I love that it will offer new things to learn as she gets older. My two year old neice, who popped in for the last 20 minutes really loved it too.
And I plan to come back with my 30something friends for a bit of play.

Yeah, it’s a little weird. That’s exactly why I had to give it a chance. Also because I have a three year old to entertain, and this just seemed like it’d be right up her alley.
The two of us were meeting a group of people there, most of which were already there by the time that I arrived. However, I didn’t even have time to say hi to anyone before the lady working there excitedly showed us how the whole thing worked for about five minutes. That’s mostly a good thing, though. Then we got to play in it. Laying around in a room full of rocks is actually kinda neat. It’s definitely an experience for the senses. Picking some out to take home was fun, too.
That said, the lady in there seemed a little bent on it being some kind of experience to «take in» and relax to, like some kind of spiritual thing, which is not something that a bunch of toddlers and preschoolers are going to understand. It’s a room full of shiny colourful things that look perfect for throwing. There are mirrors around the bottom of the room, which is both cool and a little scary around the small children with tiny hard objects. We all had to have a few chats with our kids about not throwing them, but mostly it was fine. At least until the lady suddenly yelled over to two of the kids to settle down, sit back down in the rocks, and relax in them. Or something like that. Um…
But other than that! Cool idea. Major points for originality. Also potentially a great place for kids with sensory disorders and similar issues, but keep in mind that it’s all in one small room. It gets surprisingly loud as kids go through the rocks, as well as a bit warm. Plus you might have to explain to the lady why your child is not sitting quietly the entire time. To be fair, you are allowed to «swim» through them, bury yourself in them, etc. That actually felt pretty good. You never know until you try! ;)

Some ideas are so out there you just want them to work. The Scratch Patch is one of those idea.
Located in a small shop on a busy street, when you walk in you notice right away that your not in any regular shop. The floor is covered with those shiny little rocks you see at all those tourist shops ALL over the world. You know the ones, they usually come in a big bowl and you can buy a small leather (cloth/​vinyl/​paper/​etc) bag to put them in. Well, here they are all over the floor with a small stone walk way down the middle. As you step in the owner (I assume) asked if you want to remove your shoes and stand/​sit in the rocks and look at the rocks. He hands you a large sheep of paper that has a number of pictures of the minerals on it and their names. Its sort of like the first time you go for sushi and they give you the menu with all the pictures on it. The next thing you notice is that this fellow is not wearing any shoes either and is standing in the rocks. In fact… no one is wearing shoes and they are all either standing or kneeling in the rocks. (And you expect me to pick these up and look at them…) If you do take off your shoes he will then hand you a stuffed lotus for you to put the rocks on that you find. After you are done looking you can, you guessed it, buy bags of varying size to put your collected rocks in.
I am fairly jaded, so at first I thought this was the craziest idea ever. OK, I still think its pretty damn crazy, but there were a lot of people there looking at rocks and one guy bought a bag for $ 15.00. My son also loved it and if I hadn’t dragged him out we most likely would still be there, him sitting in the rocks and me next to him on the stone patch wondering whose foot had touched the current rock he was holding.
The man working the counter (I assume it was the owner) was very nice and friendly. He was a little on the pushy side about me talking off my shoes and giving the whole standing in the rocks thing a try, but other then that he was fine.
I’m giving it four stars because staff was friendly and a lot of the people there seemed to enjoy it. If you’d like to experience it, you’d better hurry, because I can’t imagine that its going to be around for a long time. I could be wrong however as its located across the street for the East-​west Bookstore and the guy behind the counter there was the one that told me to check it out.