Dd will be 8 in October and this current obsession is lasting quite a long time. In fact, when she was about 4 she drew all the planets, cut them out and I hung them on our wall. I only recently took them down and threw them out. Now I wish I hadn't!

We're taking her to our planetarium on Saturday for the first time. She's beside herself with joy.

Any other ideas/suggestions are much appreciated!

Have you explored NASA website? They have tons of posters and materials for educators.

I had forgotten that I have it on my iPod. I will check out the site for free stuff. Thanks!

We checked out about 15 solar system books from the library. We learned facts about each planet and the asteroid belt. We also watched the shuttle launch and discussed it. The planetarium sounds great as does the NASA website.

Same here, some obsessions come and go, not space.

On tv: NOVA and NOVA now and national geographic channel has great stuff
Books: Brainwaves
She might be too old for this one Lift the flap space book
In fiction, George is the best, George and the secret key to the universe

Also our planetarium gift shop had awesome books

And the ultimate - the Kennedy space center in Florida, was fantastic, plus there are
now going to be shuttles in 5 places, so happy NYC is getting one.

I hope other people have good nonfiction suggestions, I am always stumped, most books seem to offer the same information. Just got one about searching for the goldilocks planet - there is a lot of new stuff on the demotion of Pluto, hunt for exoplanets, from picture books to more advanced telling of the discoveries.

I would love a good textbook but since most schools below college don't do separate years on space I doubt there is one, hmm but now I am thinking I should see what's out there.

This was on the NASA site Activities

And if thinking about an iPad or have one, there are TONS of awesome space, solar system apps, some are really quite beautiful

Also magic school bus has a nice space science kit.

DeHe

This site was recently given to me for my space obsessed 10 y.o. daughter:

http://www.zooniverse.org/projects

She has literally spent hours since then going through the different categories.

Our daughter has been obsessed with space since she was 2 and it's showing no sign of ever abating. Her knowledge level is going to make her first year at highschool an interesting one to work out though as they study the solar system in first term - and she's more interested in the theory of black holes

Nat

We have a very inexpensive telescope (<$35) with very nice optics that we got here: https://www.galileoscope.org/. With a sturdy tripod and some practise you can see 4 moons of jupiter, rings of Saturn, and the moon looks spectacular. Very satisfying and not huge expense. They also have stargazing projects at the site that are designed for the telescopes capabilities.

It's been suggested to me that several wonderful movies about space exploration are nearly suitable for kids (or suitable for some kids) including From the Earth to the Moon, but we haven't watched any yet.

You might also search around for NASA installations or research centers in a days driving radius. In traveling recently I've come across several that I wasn't aware existed, and they all had programs and tours for visitors

Dehe, can you say suggest some space/solar system apps? or post them to the iPad app thread of a few days ago?

APOD on the ipad is a really great app to see all kinds of solar system pictures in great detail. All my kids love looking at the pictures that are put on there...they are really amazing, and if you tap on them, it turns up a corner with a ton of detail on what the picture is and other detailed info.

Its Astronomy Pictures of the Day.

I'd recommend a couple of songs by Christine Lavin--"Planet X" and "If We Had No Moon." You can find them on YouTube or buy them on iTunes. There's a neat video on YouTube set to the music for "If We Had No Moon".

"Planet X" is about Pluto--it's a little outdated, but full of great info regardless. Plus, I have to say that the fact that she can set the phrase "International Astronomical Union Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature" to a catchy tune makes her one of my personal heroes.

"Planet X" lyrics: http://www.christinelavin.com/index...her_Really_Does_Know_Best&display=35

"If We Had No Moon" video:

Agree about George!
In FL there are middle and high school Earth Space classes and there are textbooks for those levels.

I guess Pearson has one...

http://www.imarksweb.net/book/pearson+high+school+earth+space+textbook/

Star walk/solar walk
Planets
NASA viz, NASA tv

And I posted on the other thread science Friday and science 360

Been eyeing G, newtons laws, solar system simulation and there are some cool telescope ones too

DeHe

Thanks, I didn't know they came separately!

Great ideas! Thank you all so much.

Great thread! I second the telescope recommendation. We bought a cheap National Geographic one that turned out to be absolutely terrible, so will have to check out the one posted here.

Another thing that DS enjoys is his Redshift 7 planetarium software. You can buy a license for about $20. There might be much better software out there, but that's the only one we've tried.

I just noticed this: http://www.stellarium.org/

ETA: The Galileoscope seems to be $50 most places. I found it here for $28.95, resulting in $39 and change shipped to me on the East Coast. Buy at your own risk, of course; I've never ordered from this place before.
http://store.exploratorium.edu/browse.cfm/galileoscope/4,5237.html

Really, Really Big Questions about Space and Time is a great book that goes far beyond most kids' books about space:
http://www.amazon.com/Really-Questions-about-Space-Time/dp/0753430193

Ditto for the Basher astronomy book:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=searchalias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=basher+astronomy&x=0&y=0

My son was giddy when he found the Basher book because it covered the Kuiper belt and oort clouds. Definite nerd moment.

DS loved that Basher astronomy too (and others in the series)

I bought 2 Galileoscopes a couple of years ago for the kids, they were $20 at the time. fun but can be hard to focus. The kids have fun with them, i picked up extra tripods at Goodwill. We brought them to astronomy night at school and all the kids had fun because the other equipment was hands off, high end and people lining up to take a peak. They liked being able to use our low-tech gear

Ordered them here but WOW they did go up in price, I wouldn't pay $50 each! https://www.galileoscope.org/gs/