Moon landing anniversary
It’s a very exciting time in our household at the moment. Speed loves anything to do with space and with all the coverage about the anniversary of the moon landing, we are constantly talking about space. It’s been two years since he started getting interested in space and his interest hasn’t waned one bit. He has already taken out most of the space books out of the library both our local one and at the Pequot library. We have watched some great videos about space, done research projects, made electrical games matching planets with their names and poured over articles from satellite collisions to each delayed space shuttle launch. We’ve been to the Air and Space Museum in Washington and the Natural History Museum in NYC many times. He’s a regular visitor to the NASA website and the European Space Agency website. He even has the moon night light where you can change the phase of the moon.
Now with the anniversary of the first moon landing there are articles, documentaries and discussions about the future for space exploration. Speed would like to land on Mars.
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to show him how to make a timeline of space exploration. 
We had just watched a video called Voyage to the Planets. It was very interesting and showed what it would be like to explore or land on all the planets. Speed loved it but didn’t realize that it was fiction and that man hadn’t actually landed on Mars. It prompted me to go over in more detail where man has actually gone and how decisions about space exploration are made.
I found a great video series in the library called From the Earth to the Moon (1998). It is a dramatic representation of what happened during the space race to the moon detailing how NASA went about the space program and how the agency made decisions. It is definitely not designed for six year olds. It includes the politics of all the people involved in the decision making process. The videos are about 45 minutes long. 3 per disk and I think 5 disks in all. Although very detailed, the video held his attention even when it went into the senate inquiries into the deaths of the astronauts in the Apollo One test. He was fascinated about how the space craft caught fire (due to the Velcro in high pressurized oxygen) and where the wrench was found in the wiring. I know more about it now than I ever thought I would.
Now I am looking for astronomy curricula and exploring the planetaria in the area. Please let me know if you know of any good programs or teaching materials.
