MaM has hit the question stage in her young life. Not the “why” stage her brother is in, but a whole different kind of question stage. Here’s what went down last night as she was getting ready for bed:
“Mommy! Dad showed me the moon is out tonight ,and so’s Jupiter!”
“That’s great honey. You saw the planet Jupiter?”
“Yes, I did. Mommy, who drives Jupiter?”
“Who drives it?”
“Yes. Who drives it? Honey, it’s in orbit around the sun like our planet, Earth.”
“What’s orbit?”
“It means that something goes around something else. Jupiter and Earth orbit around the sun.”
“Oh. What does Jupiter look like?”
“It’s very big, and it’s read and has a big spot on it, there are also nine moons.” (I think. Is it red? or is Mars?)
“But what are the people like on Jupiter?’
“There are no people on Jupiter.”
“But I want to SEE Jupiter. I want to go there!”
“Well, Jupiter is very cold, you’d have to take a spaceship there” (I think it’s cold. Which planet is Jupiter? M V E M ….?)
“A spaceship? How do you drive a spaceship?” (are they called spaceships? can you even ever get there? would it take light years?)
“Well a space ship travels in space ,and you have to be an astronaut to work in one.”
“An astronaut? What’s an astronaut?” (Where are those Tang commercials when you need them?)
“Well, an astronaut learns all about the spaceship. Most astronauts have been in the Air Force , and you have know a lot of science.” (Is it the Air Force? or is it Navy? Are they even training new astronauts? Is NASA defunct yet?)
Enter Mad Science’s KNOW Magazine. KNOW Magazine is a new, advertisement-free science magazine for kids ages 6-9 yrs old. Colorful photos, activities and interesting articles for parents and children alike will engage any budding scientist. I think MaM is seriously going to dig the experiments. I’m just hoping I can keep up with her!
I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Mad Science and received the products necessary to facilitate my review. In addition, I received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.
HYSTERICAL! Shoot I forgot that Jupiter is visible now – must remind Dan.
There’s an AWESOME space museum in Huntsville, AL, a mere oh, 7 hours away if you drive! It’s a little bit out of the way when we go visit my parents in Tuscaloosa or to the beach at Gulf Shores, so if you ever DID go to Gulf Shores for a beach vacation that was not on a lake, you could go see it and she could see rockets and spacesuits and whatnot. I’m trying to remember if Wright-Patt has space stuff – there’s a great plane museum out there, but I don’t remember if they did a couple of rockets too. And not sure if Gus Grissom has a museum – he was from Indiana and an astronaut – although died horribly, so that might be too much for MaM as her first experience – but anyway, might be a field trip for next summer!
Oh, I can hear MAM asking these questions! Maybe a trip to Kennedy Space Center will be on the agenda for the florida trip. In the mean time keep those magazines handy! Have to love that inquiring mind – I believe it will take her great places!