Just Five More Minutes

Two weeks ago we decided to start our girls on a month-long moon observation adventure. This was prompted by an activity in RS4K Pre-Level 1 Astronomy, which we decided to tweak and extend. Jumping off from the RS4K lab notes, I created a moon observation worksheet for our young astronomers. We started our observations on the first clear night after that. It just so happened that our start date was a week before the year’s supermoon, and we all thought it was SO COOL that the girls were able to record that huge moon in their notebooks!

Of course, the moon isn’t always conveniently available for observation just before bedtime. Last night it was still below the horizon at 10 pm, when our girls are (or should be) sound asleep.

But fortunately when the moon rises late it also sets late, so early this morning we took the girls their science binders while they were still stretching awake in bed. The moon was still visible in the west, and we thought they could squeeze in a little astronomy before breakfast. (Depending on your perspective, the opportunity for learning at any time of day is either one of homeschooling’s great advantages or one of its most serious annoyances. As the ones doing the waking up today, we chose to see it as an advantage.)

Tasha and Charlotte quite happily tumbled out of bed and looked up at the moon. Then Tasha asked, “Okay, Dad, if I’m going to do this, will you at least play Morning Moon?.”

I think it was one of Hubby’s proudest moments: his daughters enjoying both astronomy AND The Tragically Hip.