Crafty-like

About six months ago I got an app on my phone called Skyview, which is just about the coolest app I've downloaded (no hyperbole included).  You hold up your phone to the sky (or anywhere, actually) and it shows the stars, constellations, planets, satellites and comets that should be in that location.  Tapping on any of the stars provides their names.  Tapping on any of the planets shows their trajectory, which you can then tap and determine what time the planet will be at that location on the trajectory.  Seriously, if you're a star gazer, amateur or otherwise, or if you just miss the clear nights in the country when the cloudy haze of the Milky Way is visible, it's pretty awesome.

Why am I telling you all this?  Because it's now Monkey's favorite app, too.  A couple of nights ago, six planets had clustered together in the night sky.  I'm not entirely sure where the little fella got so much information on planets (it hasn't been a unit in school, and the lengthy discussion about chemistry and the solar system hadn't happened yet), but he knew the names of most of the planets, and was pretty thrilled about them.  We decided that this week, now that I've got a stretch of free time, we'd build a mobile of the solar system for his room.

So here's the thing.  There are all kinds of ways to slap a solar system mobile together.  I've seen everything from a giant yellow ball crammed with skewers attached to other balls, innovative little ways to make an overhead light the sun with planets coming off of it with heavy gauge wire, and some that attempt to allow for orbital movement.

But here's the thing.  If we're going to work on a project that deals with planets, is it enough to just talk about distance from the sun and the names/orders of each planet?  Why NOT include the correct orbital paths?  Why NOT include the asteroid and kuiper belts and a comet or two?  It seems like all of the toothpick and styrofoam projects miss a critical point - if a child is interested in something, why NOT teach them everything you can?  Little monkeys are so hungry to know everything and can get so obsessive about a subject, that it seems the opportunity is ripe to really get in up to your waist in the subject.  Immerse the kid in whatever they show genuine curiosity about, just like they would in a sandbox or mud pit.  Allow them to experience the breadth of opportunity in each subject, show them that there's always more to know, and bring them along as you show them where to find information, so the ACT of learning something new becomes a family hobby.

We're going to Michael's today.  We'll be hand painting planets this afternoon, and over the next week we'll be checking out the orbital paths of each of them.  Then we'll work with Daddy to figure out how to engineer a solar system that works properly and hang it in the Monkey's room.

It'll be a long week, but we have to work quickly.  Next week he'll be excited about botany, and that's a whole new project to get up to our necks in.