I'm an autistic mom of 3 autistic kids. We hunted for dinosaur bones and surprisingly we all enjoyed it.

• I went hunting for dinosaur bones with my kids, who are 7, 8, and 10 and are all autistic.
• I prepared them for what they could expect from our adventure.

What started as dinosaur research for my chapter-book series became a family adventure. I hunted for dinosaur bones with my husband and three neurodivergent kids at Dinosaur Park in Laurel, Maryland.

I had prepared my kids a month in advance so they would know what to expect at Dinosaur Park. As an autistic adult, I'm not always comfortable with new places and experiences either. My kids knew that it would be really hard to find dinosaur bones and that if we found any we wouldn't be able to keep them.

Our orientation with the Dinosaur Park staff and volunteers included a brief history of Maryland's dinosaurs, with a cast of a dinosaur skull and dinosaur bones as visual aids, before they set us loose to hunt for fossils. Within a few minutes of searching the dig site, a boy around 8 years old found a crocodile tooth.

"Come see!" the volunteers yelled.

The park is great for neurodivergent kids

I knew an animal fossil like this might be the biggest find of the day. With encouragement, my 8-year-old daughter got down on the ground to see the whitish-gray pointy crocodile tooth poking out of the clay on the hill. My 7-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter also leaned in for a closer look.

Peter M. Kranz, a geologist who is an expert on Maryland's dinosaurs, told me he's met a lot of neurodivergent kids with a special interest in dinosaurs during his work at the Dinosaur Park and the nonprofit he founded, Dinosaur Fund, which offers dinosaur-dig field trips.

At the park, my kids kept their eyes peeled for the smooth, shiny pieces that could be fossils. At first they wanted me or my husband to go with them to talk to the park volunteers, easily identifiable with bright orange vests, about their finds. But eventually my kids asked the volunteers about potential fossils on their own.

We were each allowed to take home a piece of iron ore and fossilized wood. But after a chunk of fossilized wood crumbled into an ashy powder in my son's tight grip, I decided we wouldn't be taking any fossilized wood home with us.

My son found a piece of iron ore with a jagged crack separating it into two interlocking pieces. Opening it revealed a glimpse of life from 110 million years ago, with holes that were probably from small tree branches, according to a park volunteer. My son chose a different piece of iron ore to bring home, so I kept this one for myself.

As it turned out, I was right about the crocodile tooth being the most significant find during our three hours at Dinosaur Park.

"He found a crocodile tooth within two minutes," my 10-year-old daughter said outside the park. She was clearly upset that we weren't as lucky.

"It's not about what you find," I said. "It's about the experience. Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah." Her baseball cap shaded her cheeks, which were red from the heat.

"Do you want to go dinosaur-bone hunting with me again?" I asked, fully expecting that the answer might be no. "Somewhere else in Maryland or out west, where you can sometimes keep the dinosaur bones that you find?"

"Maybe," she said, and smiled.

Adventures with my kids inevitably come with challenges like an uncomfortably hot day or expectations that aren't met. But my kids usually have a lot of fun and learn new things no matter where we go or what we do. So why not take them dinosaur-bone hunting?