Oh, Outer Space

Today we learned about the solar system.  The boys each colored their own planets and we cut and glued them to large sheets of construction paper.  We sang a song to help us learn the name of the eight planets.  Owen Ray had so many questions about what made each planet different from the others.  I’m afraid we’ll have to learn most of that together in the coming weeks as I do not remember most of my elementary education regarding astronomy.   Tonight before the boys went to bed I read them the story of the birth of Jesus, of our King.  Chandler saw the star above the stable and cried out “A star! A star!”  Having spent the whole day introducing them to the concept of outer space, I felt like this would be a perfect night to take them outside to see the real stars before they shuffled off to bed.  We walked out onto the front porch all in PJs and I asked them if they could find any stars.  At first, the sky was so vast and so black that we didn’t notice those pinpricks of light, but our eyes soon adjusted and we saw dozens and dozens of stars.  Owen Ray turned to me and asked “Mom, are stars sticky?”  I asked him to clarify, not sure if I had heard right.  “Are they sticky on one side,” he explained, “so that they can stick up on the sky.”  Multiple thoughts followed.  First, my son is adorable. Second, I would love to see the world through his eyes.  Third, are gravitational forces pulling planets in orbit any weirder than thinking that stars have a sticky side to adhere to space?  When we got back inside, I pointed them to the verse that’s above their table right now.  It’s from the Psalms and it says “…praise Him all you shining stars.”  Indeed.