ISO astronomy resources

[TinyMama]

DD, 4.5, is very into space right now.  She announced tonight that if we don't get her new space books, she is going to start re-reading the Rainbow Fairies.  Ahhhh!!!

Here's what we've done so far.  I'd love any additional suggestions!  DD is reading at about a 3rd grade level.

--borrowed full set of True Books about the planets

--DVD of the repair of the Hubble

--book of the repair of the Hubble

--Magic Tree House Moon book, and Space NF book

--Magic Schoolbus visits the Planets

--Greek mythology--books (a bit too mature for her) and cd's (Jim Weiss--amazing!!)

--visited a planetarium (great, but the stuff about black holes terrified her)

--watched videos from discoveryeducation.com and a full series called Space School

--mobiles of the planets--built and hung

--hung constellations on her ceiling with glow stars

Please help!  I honestly don't think I can take the Rainbow Fairies again!  

[Tigerle]

Originally Posted by TinyMama 

--borrowed full set of True Books about the planets

--DVD of the repair of the Hubble

--book of the repair of the Hubble

--Magic Tree House Moon book, and Space NF book

--Magic Schoolbus visits the Planets

--Greek mythology--books (a bit too mature for her) and cd's (Jim Weiss--amazing!!)

--visited a planetarium (great, but the stuff about black holes terrified her)

--watched videos from discoveryeducation.com and a full series called Space School

--mobiles of the planets--built and hung

--hung constellations on her ceiling with glow stars

Wow, I am going to use that list as a reference as to what to offer my DS! It sounds very comprehensive to me, Hope others can come up with more suggestions.

A while ago, DS loved watching rocket videos on youtube (NASA's got a site, and there are lots of individual videos of rocket launches, both "real" and garden rockets). You'll have to monitor that though, if you can believe it, because you can label adult content with "rocket" titles too. I also needed to be sure DS didn't come across videos of space shuttle disasters, as he'd be very frightened.

DS has also enjoyed diving into the more technical aspects of space travel. I gave DH a garden rocket construction set for his birthday (among other things!) which we enjoyed launching on a field, and he builds LEGO rockets. There are great LEGO sets out there, unfortunately the stuff is SO expensive...

[Bekka]

Get a star chart and start to learn what constellations there are where.  She is old enough to start to understand major ones.  If she'll dress up warmly, then yeah.  Winter is a great time to stargaze--very cold, but clear skies when they're not cloudy.

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Sky-Star-Wheel-Publishing/dp/1931559309

This is similar to the one I have.  Get a little flashlight and put a red filter on it so it doesn't ruin her night vision.

Learn about meteorites/meteoroids and the Leonids, etc.  Find an astronomy club and take her out late at night to look at the stars.

Your kid will then say, "galaxies are actually created by nebulae" and then you can have a big discussion about where science and religion intersect according to your beliefs.  Oh wait, that was MY experience this week, not yours.  Have fun.

[TinyMama]

Thanks for the suggestions!  

Tigerle, I hadn't even thought of getting a rocket-building kit.  That's a great idea.  I have also had the adult-material on youtube problem.  I'm not sure why there are so many naked people in videos with planet titles, but there are.  Sheesh.  We do watch launches on NASA's website, and the NYTimes has had almost daily space news lately.

Bekka, that's an excellent idea.  I actually just downloaded an app that shows the stars and planets, and we can start tracking them on paper too.  It's funny that you mentioned the science/religion discussion, because we have had a few of those--inspired by the Jim Weiss Greek mythology cd's.  He starts, "Before science, people believed in gods and goddesses..." and DD was off and running with the religion questions.  It was great!

[tifpaul]

Which stars and planet app did you get?  I'm interested in getting one that I can reference during the day, but the ones I have found seem to be real- time ones it use outside at night.

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by tifpaul 

Which stars and planet app did you get?  I'm interested in getting one that I can reference during the day, but the ones I have found seem to be real- time ones it use outside at night.

We love StarWalk here. Night, day, red-light, any location, tons of zoom-able information, accelerometer and compass-enabled on the iPad/iPhone. Costs about $5 for the iPad, $3 on the iPhone. Worth every penny vs. the free ones, IMO. 

Miranda

[melissa17s]

I will look into that app.  My kids have been watch in the Carl Sagan series Cosmos with dh, and are captivated.  Also, yesterday on local public radio they were talking about a "Symphony of Science", which put science to music.  It is broader than astronomy, but it included some songs about it.  

For Christmas, we tried to get ds a indoor planetarium, but the one we ordered did not work.  I found another one, which maybe we will get for him for his birthday, but it is much more expensive.