Kids and metal detecting?

[KinjoVT]

Here is a question I was wondering if you could help with. My friends kid is 11 years old. Last spring when I took up metal detecting he showed some interest. He was given a RS model that lacked any real good features and was kind of small for him. For Christmas he was given an Ace 150 since he is still a beginner and a child. They were told it seemed like the right model for him. I seem to agree.
Since I go every chance I get, he will sometimes ask to go, and will be amped up. Five minutes into the hunt at the park he puts down the detector, and starts shooting hoops. Is there any way to keep a child's interest in this hobby? I know I should not force him to detect otherwise he will hate it, and I don't push him. He is excited to get out there and start but he stops so soon. I know at ten years old I wanted a detector, and 16 years later I got one, and love it. Anyone have the same problem or a solution?

 

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[skydiv]

has he found anything? thats when the bug hits.

 

[The Beep Goes On]

You could always salt the ground for him

HH!
TBGO

 

[Gypsy Heart]

The Beep beat me to it....
Seed the ground

Its a little harder when its not your own child, because you aren't there to keep the interest up in between hunts. Don't let him take the basketball or maybe go to someplace that requires more than a jaunt around the local park. get him involved in the researching of the place you are hunting.

With my girls ,they like to look up the things they find, look for the history ,visit coin shops, etc. But when they were younger , I did plant arrowheads, wheats ,etc .....now I don't have to , they are 10 and 9 and Go on their own. But on the all dayers with me ,they do get tired and I make sure I bring snacks and bring books,camera , art stuff for them to do on a blanket while I hunt.

 

[KinjoVT]

I think I may try salting the ground, but if I was to get caught he would probably be mad
He has found some items, clad coins, children's rings, but nothing great. Although when he is finding coins and such he is a digging machine. He will stay consistant for some time. Never more than a half an hour. Last week I found a park that I am sure has never been hunted. It is very obscure but very busy. It is a city park nestled way back in the middle of some developments. I brought him there because the previous week, I pulled 50 coins, a gold? ear ring, and a sterling ring from the ground. and that was only around the tennis courts. I had not touched the rest of the park. He did not seem interested and we were not there long.
He seems fascinated by treasure. We have watched some of the Treasure shows on the Biography channel. He is motived by money. He will rake leaves, shovel snow, or any chores that he can do for money!
He will walk over in the middle of his swing if he sees that I am getting ready to dig a target. I think seeding might work in capturing his attention, and I guess next time the basketball will have to stay home. I think a MD excursion into the woods maybe coming! No basketball courts there he will have to focus.

 

[grizzly bare]

Many young folks have short attention spans...uh..what were we talking about?
Seriously, there is nothing wrong with his detecting then playing ball. As adults we oftebn forget the momentary fascination of a butterfly, a mud puddle, or another person. I don't think you are doing anything wrong. Skydiv hit it pretty well on the head when he asked if the kid had found anything exciting yet. Once that first big BEEP hits you, there's no going back.

Jim Johnson
grizzly bare

 

[rolltide]

Metal detecting requires patience. I don't know any 11 year old that has patience. When I was 11, my dad showed me his coin collection that he found detecting and told me all about them. I was the one who looked up the prices in the book and told him how many were made. I also went along with him while he detected and I was the digger. I still remember seeing those pennies sticking out of the side of the dirt. I've been hooked ever since! Not just detecting...but gold panning, gem hunting, and even searching for antiques at Goodwill. lol. If he knows about coins and coin history, he'll enjoy detecting a bit more.
You can't force a kid to love detecting...but you can hook him I agree with above posts to salt the ground with something awesome. Perhaps take him detecting somewhere where there is no basketball court or anything else to do. lol. Also, kids can be wimps when it comes to heat and mosqitos and they'll relate metal detecting with that feeling every time they think of it...even subconsciously. I'm still a wimp when it comes to that! :P I think it would be cool to go on a group detecting trip with a lot of people. I've never done that but that would be cool. Overall, he's 11 so make it as fun as possible with the least aggrivations.

(Warning: Once hooked, the fever is irreversible. Side effects include dreaming of finding treasure, forever examining your change, hearing "The Beep" in your head, and hating litterbugs (especially people who throw poptops on the ground) AHHH! :P

 

[Stainless Steet Rat]

I know when I was about 12 years old I got a simple metal detector and I used it for 1 week then it went into the corner and I never used it again. It would just beep at all metal and I ended up with so many nails and foil packs and pull tabs I gave up. I remember getting in trouble for digging up the yard.

 

[Rusted_Iron]

I know when I was maybe 13 or 14 years old, it was hard to stick with metal detecting unless I was finding things. What makes it all the more discouraging for a kid is when he sees everybody else finding things but can't seem to have any success of his own. It used to be very frustrating when I was young to see how much good stuff these people in the detector ads were finding, then when I'd go out I'd be lucky to find a dollar in clad.

Kids in general are not known for their patience.

Instead of salting a place with coins, you might go to a fresh area and run over it with your detector for good 'coin' signals, just don't dig them. That will take restraint on your part I'm sure Then take the kid with you and let him go to it.

 

[hollowpointred]

theres an old saying about a horse and some water ...........all you can do is encourage him but its up to him to develop a passion for it. i agree that detecting does require a lot of patience. maybe as he gets older the patients will come.

 

[Jerxs]

Kids will be kids, I dont think you could expect any kid to go out and hunt for hours on end without getting distracted. Let him do his own thing when hes out. If he gets board with the detector let him shoot hoops when hes ready to detect he will pick er up and swing it.

I have a 4 year old and a 9 year old that both love detecting, but when I go out with them I have to expect that they arent going to be focused on the detecting for any long period of time.

My yongest found his first solo silver today, HOORAAHHH, I think hes hooked at 4

 

[ferrouser]

Show him your finds, and some treasure magazines.

 

[James57]

I have a 10 year old daughter who is just getting into metal detecting. She loves it but after an hour or so she wants to do something else. I think that's normal, kids need more variety that adults. She digs up everything and she wants to dig up every last bit of metal in the backyard. She created a display of all the objects she's found with labels and everything. I did most (all) of the digging at first while she did the detecting but she is doing the digging herself now. We've gone detecting in parks and beaches and she usually ends up playing on the swings or the water before an hour is up. Lately she is pretty determined at metal detecting and she spends more time at it. When she has had enough, she gives her detector to me or her Mom and she goes and plays. That is no problem although if my Wife is not with us, I have 2 metal detectors and a little girl to watch out for. I think that metal detecting should be her choice and she has been wanting to detect more and more. I am half-way through another 2-week business trip so she is back to practising locating things in the back yard again. She tells me about her finds over the phone but there is nothing left in the yard except nails. She did locate a large iron object about 10"-11" underground so I will help her dig that up when I get home. She uncovered part of it but it is pretty rocky and the soil is pretty hard at that depth. I wonder what it is, I will dig it up on the 15th when I am back. She is using my old Garrett GTAx 400, I just bought a Whites DFX a few weeks ago.

 

[wmas1960]

Others have said much of what I thought of when I read your original post. Kids have short attention spans and can get a little bored easilly. One of the reasons that it doesn't make sense to spend a lot on a kids detector. You want something good that will find good things, so the child doesn't get bored, but something too expensive could just get put away in a year or so as other interests surface. It doesn't mean that he is not maintaining an interest in detecting though. He just may be going with other interests that strike him at the moment. I work a lot around kids and often see them take out a toy or game, play for 5 minutes and just leave it for something else. One of the reasons that, when you drive around a neighborhood you see front yards full of abandoned toys.

I don't know if I would go to any special effort here. Go to places where you can still be challenged to find good stuff and where he can play some hoops or something if he gets a little bored. Some place where you and he can do what you like without being too far from keeping an eye on him. That way you can both enjoy yourselves. As you say, when he is finding things, he is a digging machine. Shows that he still does maintain some interest Just keep trying to find good places that will challenge him. Places where he will find good stuff. Or, maybe make a game with it. Come up with a competition for who can find the best or most. Sometimes just finding coins can be boring. Maybe find some places where you might find other interesting things as well. Perhaps not valuable stuff but interesting. You might be able to strike one of his other facinations or interests. Where are you looking? Are there places around with some history? Civil War sites, Revolutionary War? Old Farms, Fishing Villages etc. Some place with some culture where you could find cool historically significant items? Maybe he doesn't see kids rings and common coins as cool.