turbo_pascale
03-09-2008, 11:38 PM
I thought I would share with the group one of the nicest interactive "sharing" moments I've ever had with my son.
He's going to be 3 in about 7 weeks time.
Last Sunday, was struggling to get him ready for bed, so went outside to have a smoke in preparation for the longwinded ritual of trying to get him to bed.
He popped outside unexpectedly, and he went down in to the courtyard to run amok, and he looked up and said , "I see a big star". It was Jupiter. I'd in the past pointed out Jupiter, and told him it was a planet, but he was adamant is was a star, and when pressed he would giggle and go "Naaaahhhhh, that not a planet".
I thought I was up for the same again. But I said, that's Jupiter. He repeated "joop-ta-ta". I explained it was another planet, kind of like where we live (He's only 2 - I took some licence!). It seemed to stick, and he made up a little song "Joop-ta-ta, joop-ta-ta" etc etc.
Thought nothing of it, other than it was better than "Naaaaaahhhhh, that not a planet".
On the way home tonight, he was looking the moon and said "the moon is smiling at me". I though "Great", as it was very low on the western horizon, and the crescent was fully horizontal, looking like a big smile. Very clever to notice this while driving home and distracted by the normal stuff in the car.
When we got home, I retreated to the patio for my "pre-bedtime-struggle smoke", and out he popped again. He went down and said "I can see Joop-ta-ta with my eye". ABSOLUTELY COOL!!! Not that it's too hard to differentiate from everything else, but given it has been constant cloud cover for such a long time, I was most impressed. I told him that I had taken a photo of Jupiter on the computer, so we went inside to look at it on the computer. He was reasonably interested, but not all that excited. I said I took the photo with my telescope. He looked at me and said "telescope!?". I said, yeah, the telescope in the shed. Well, he ran out in to the yard and wanted to go in the shed. It's not that he hasn't seen it before, but clearly a Meade LX200GPS doesn't look like the telescope that Captain Feathersword uses! He looked at me suspiciously, and said "that's not loud is it?". I reassured him it made no noise!
So, with the clouds no where to be seen (a MIRACLE), cracked open the roof and started the search for the diagonal and an eyepiece (all boxed away in different parts of the house since the storm that shut me down 4 months ago). Knowing the attention span was going to be limited, decided not to even fire up the scope, just do it manually. The finder was still pretty well aligned, and got it all going in a few minutes. Got him up to the eyepiece (which he was not quite the right height for, so was using it to "hang off" the back of the scope!). But then, after trying to explain how to put he eye to the eyepiece (try telling a 2 year old to close one eye and stick your other eye in to a dark hole and see how that goes!!!!), he saw it. Instant silence, then "I see it!!! I see it! Joop-ta-ta" in an excited little voice! then "oops, it gone" (literally hanging on to the EP/diagonal had moved it out of the FOV). I got it back, and he said, "there's little dots there". (score!! 3 Jovian moons!) I explained what they were, and he keep at the eyepiece for another few minutes.
Then, some bug started crawling up the wall of the shed, and that took his interest for another few minutes. Took me a while to get him distracted from the bug and back to the scope. He wanted one more look for another 30 seconds, but now, being 45 minutes after his "dad being really generous" bed time, was starting to flounder. I got my mobile and did a little interview with him about what he had seen (while feeding him a snack to prolong the moment before he flaked out). He told me about Jupiter the planet, and the little dots that were the moons, and the stars he saw nearby, and the bug that crawled up the wall...... I'm not sure I will be able to get him to recite the story without including the bug up the wall story, but I was absolutely over the moon with the experience.
Who knows if it will happen again, but he said he wanted to look again another time. I can't believe I have to wait a long time for Saturn to come back. Now that should be something for him to remember!!
Turbo
He's going to be 3 in about 7 weeks time.
Last Sunday, was struggling to get him ready for bed, so went outside to have a smoke in preparation for the longwinded ritual of trying to get him to bed.
He popped outside unexpectedly, and he went down in to the courtyard to run amok, and he looked up and said , "I see a big star". It was Jupiter. I'd in the past pointed out Jupiter, and told him it was a planet, but he was adamant is was a star, and when pressed he would giggle and go "Naaaahhhhh, that not a planet".
I thought I was up for the same again. But I said, that's Jupiter. He repeated "joop-ta-ta". I explained it was another planet, kind of like where we live (He's only 2 - I took some licence!). It seemed to stick, and he made up a little song "Joop-ta-ta, joop-ta-ta" etc etc.
Thought nothing of it, other than it was better than "Naaaaaahhhhh, that not a planet".
On the way home tonight, he was looking the moon and said "the moon is smiling at me". I though "Great", as it was very low on the western horizon, and the crescent was fully horizontal, looking like a big smile. Very clever to notice this while driving home and distracted by the normal stuff in the car.
When we got home, I retreated to the patio for my "pre-bedtime-struggle smoke", and out he popped again. He went down and said "I can see Joop-ta-ta with my eye". ABSOLUTELY COOL!!! Not that it's too hard to differentiate from everything else, but given it has been constant cloud cover for such a long time, I was most impressed. I told him that I had taken a photo of Jupiter on the computer, so we went inside to look at it on the computer. He was reasonably interested, but not all that excited. I said I took the photo with my telescope. He looked at me and said "telescope!?". I said, yeah, the telescope in the shed. Well, he ran out in to the yard and wanted to go in the shed. It's not that he hasn't seen it before, but clearly a Meade LX200GPS doesn't look like the telescope that Captain Feathersword uses! He looked at me suspiciously, and said "that's not loud is it?". I reassured him it made no noise!
So, with the clouds no where to be seen (a MIRACLE), cracked open the roof and started the search for the diagonal and an eyepiece (all boxed away in different parts of the house since the storm that shut me down 4 months ago). Knowing the attention span was going to be limited, decided not to even fire up the scope, just do it manually. The finder was still pretty well aligned, and got it all going in a few minutes. Got him up to the eyepiece (which he was not quite the right height for, so was using it to "hang off" the back of the scope!). But then, after trying to explain how to put he eye to the eyepiece (try telling a 2 year old to close one eye and stick your other eye in to a dark hole and see how that goes!!!!), he saw it. Instant silence, then "I see it!!! I see it! Joop-ta-ta" in an excited little voice! then "oops, it gone" (literally hanging on to the EP/diagonal had moved it out of the FOV). I got it back, and he said, "there's little dots there". (score!! 3 Jovian moons!) I explained what they were, and he keep at the eyepiece for another few minutes.
Then, some bug started crawling up the wall of the shed, and that took his interest for another few minutes. Took me a while to get him distracted from the bug and back to the scope. He wanted one more look for another 30 seconds, but now, being 45 minutes after his "dad being really generous" bed time, was starting to flounder. I got my mobile and did a little interview with him about what he had seen (while feeding him a snack to prolong the moment before he flaked out). He told me about Jupiter the planet, and the little dots that were the moons, and the stars he saw nearby, and the bug that crawled up the wall...... I'm not sure I will be able to get him to recite the story without including the bug up the wall story, but I was absolutely over the moon with the experience.
Who knows if it will happen again, but he said he wanted to look again another time. I can't believe I have to wait a long time for Saturn to come back. Now that should be something for him to remember!!
Turbo