TeachThemHowToThink

Venus, Mars and Jupiter!

I stumbled across this article last night about an hour after I had put my 7-year-old to bed. Venus, Jupiter AND Mars, all easily visible? A gorgeous, clear night? A telescope sitting next to the door to the deck?

I just HAD to wake him up. I’m a bad mom like that.

It took a good five minutes to rouse him from sleep (which made me think, perhaps, waking him on a school night wasn’t the greatest idea I’ve ever had), but when I finally got him to understand why I was poking at him, he popped out of bed and pulled on his socks and shoes.

The telescope was already pointed toward Venus (though I had to adjust it a bit, of course, as the position had changed). ”WOAH,” he whispered, “I wish we could go there.”

“Mmm… what do you suppose the weather would be like?” (The weekend before we had read that Venus is mostly volcanoes and a pretty consistent 860 degrees Fahrenheit).

“Oh. Right. Well, then a robot, maybe. But I want to direct it.”

We examined Jupiter through the telescope next, then flipped it around to the East to check out Mars. Since we’re novice star gazers and our telescope isn’t the greatest, there wasn’t much to see. We decided to just spread out our blanket and stare up at the stars instead.

“Mom? Can you wake me up to do this EVERY night?”

Phew. Bad mom crises averted. ~JJ