Savvy Parenting : Summer Activities: Exploring the Nighttime Sky The Savvy Source for Parents

For some families, the summer camp schedule is in full swing, but for many others trying to make ends meet in this tough economy, a lot of the activities have been the At-Home or Do-It-Yourself guide, which makes it more of a challenge to keep your child engaged all this time. Has your child begun uttering the dreaded words I'm bored? Not to worry. We've still got lots of suggestions for summer activities you can do at home with your preschooler. There's a whole wide world out there for you and your child to explore. We've covered nature and the great outdoors, but today we're setting our sights on Infinity and Beyond -- the sky up above. Take it from the PBS Parents Exploration Guide and try these great suggestions for exploring the nighttime sky:

1) Reach for the stars: Allow your child to stay up late one night and observe the moon and stars. If you have a telescope or some binoculars, let your child look at the moon through them. For a fun project, you and your child can chart the position and appearance of the moon over the course of a week or two.

2) Make a "telescope" out of an empty toilet paper or paper towel roll. Then, put glow-in-the-dark stars on the wall and look at them through the "telescope".

3) Use play dough to simulate the surface of the moon. Roll the dough out on a table and push rocks into the dough to make lots of dents for "craters."

Click here to see the full article on PBS, along with their suggestions for more resources and book suggestions. And here are some great activities from our Savvy Source activity archive:

1) Astronomy 101
2) Shooting Stars
3) The Night Sky