Saturn

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

-Walt Whitman

I remember the time and place when I first saw Saturn. It was this past summer in Woodland Park, Colorado. My granddaughter was standing next to me. That’s what seeing a planet does to you. That’s what it does to them. She will never forget it, standing there, waiting her turn at the telescope, standing next to her grandpa.

We wandered into the dry-air night and looked up in perfect silence, at the stars and planets.

Kids need to know their neighborhood: their street, their city and state, their country and planet, and then farther. They need to reach out to the planets and stars.

We are made of the same material as stars. They are us.

Introduce your children to the sky and they will never forget it and they will never forget the person standing there next to them as they tippy-toe and gaze into space.

I offer two books to help you and your kids get to know their extended neighborhood:

Zoo In The Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations

by Jacqueline Mitton, Christina Balit (Illustrator)

This is for younger children. You will enjoy having them sit on you lap and introduce them to the constellations. And then go outside and look for them on a clear night. So much fun. They will never forget.

Child’s Introduction to the Night Sky: The Story of the Stars, Planets, and Constellations–and How You Can Find Them in the Sky (Child’s Introduction Series)

By Michael Driscoll

This is for older children and has so much information about the planets and stars. Study this book with them. Become astronomers together. Buy a telescope and fall in love with the night sky…together!! Your children will talk about the experience with their children and grandchildren. You will reap what you sew!