Metal Detector Is Great For Kids Imagination By dade on Nov 05, 2007 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

Does anyone remember Richard Nixon shuffling down the California coastline, with his trusty metal detector? I always wondered what ex presidents did, after they retired.

I always wanted a metal detector of my own. The whole idea of finding rare "pieces of eight" some pirates might have buried along the shore of Lake Michigan, always peeked my interest.

My son, Brian, saw a man at the beach last summer, using his metal detector and followed him around for awhile. Half an hour later, Brian came running up to me with dollar signs in his eyes. The man had found an old watch, buried in the sand.

My son went online and found a metal detector on RadioShack's site. We wheeled and dealed for a few minutes. Brian's idea was, I would buy him the metal detector, then when he found some money, or jewelry buried in our backyard, he would reimburse me.

My son took money out of his savings account and paid me, then I ordered the metal detector for him. It was delivered a few days later.

The Discovery Junior Metal Detector is a lot of fun and truly works. It detects small objects up to 5" and bigger objects up to about 3 feet deep. It has automatic ground balance and a built in battery tester. It takes 2 9 Volt batteries.

We had to go out and buy the batteries, but I was not surprised. The detector came with an easy to read manual. Ten minutes out of the box, my son had it outside, with his best friend, looking for loot.

This is a great gift for a child. If it had been closer to Brian's birthday, I would not have hesitated, getting this metal detector for him.

Of course, my son found a lot of buried surprises since getting this detector. Brian is buying us a new house, down in the Keys next week, with some of the loot he discovered.