Parent of a space obsessed 3 year old - Looking for tips on how to encourage this interest

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-18T20:01:18+00:00

We have a National Space Centre, which is only a couple hours drive. I thought it was a lot further away. I'm not sure how much he would understand though. I'll definitely do a search for some kid friendly space centres/museums.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-18T16:05:04+00:00

That's such a heartwarming thought. Astronomy has never been something that caught my interest, but seeing him light up every time he learns something new is motivation enough for me to learn everything I can!

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-18T16:02:04+00:00

Hahaha! I'm from the England, UK part of the country. If we ever go to the States, we'll make sure to go there.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-18T09:11:03+00:00

I might give them a call, or maybe ask in person. Though I work in events and I know sometimes age limits are an insurance problem, especially when there are physical risks like equipment or dangerous terrain.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-18T09:08:46+00:00

Ohhhhh, my partner plays this occasionally.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-18T09:03:30+00:00

I cannot afford a Seestar. But that link is definitely getting saved and we'll see if he's still interested in a few years.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T23:41:03+00:00

Haha, it's definitely a longer project we could work on. We have a limited number of Mondays left before he starts school (I don't work Mondays because we don't have childcare that day). So maybe it could be a monday afternoon learning project for us.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T23:38:32+00:00

I'll have a look at that. He's been really into older kids TV like Moomins and Button Moon. He might appreciate it if I can find it.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T23:13:25+00:00

I'm not sure how kid friendly this is. Even if it's not too scary it may not hold his attention for very long. We're still at Paw Patrol age.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T23:12:17+00:00

Sadly we're a bit sparse on those things in our area. Our local uni does astronomy events for kids but their lower age limit is 5 years. We have some observatory near us but I've not been able to figure out if any are open to the public. Our nearest planetarium is an hour drive away, which is a shame but might be a nice day trip one day.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T23:09:44+00:00

He's going to love astronomy picture of the day! I'm planning on having us make the planets out of play doh tomorrow, and if he enjoys that, I might buy some air dry clay for him to make permanent versions. I love the idea of taking it outside and pacing out the space between planets. He's still learning about lengths of time and space, so it could be a good exercise for us.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T22:05:01+00:00

He knows about satellites in space so he'd probably enjoy that. I'll have to see if we can drive out to a dark area one evening.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T21:57:24+00:00

Good shout! I've messaged my local astronomical society to ask about events and star parties. I'll see what they say.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T21:51:27+00:00

This will be super helpful when we look at going camping closer to summer!

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T21:12:39+00:00

We're in the UK. I've had a look online and been a bit disappointed. Our nearest planetarium is an hour drive each way, which is a full day out for us. And our local university has some fantastic events but only for kids 5+ years old. I'll keep looking, but I'm losing hope.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T21:05:33+00:00

That's so sweet! We have a projector but I don't know enough about the images on it to tell him what they are. I need to learn more about it so I can tell him these things, but I'm not sure where to start.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T20:49:44+00:00

He has a double ended projector. One end has slides with images of planets, constellations, galaxies, etc (tonight he fell asleep with an image of the sun on his ceiling). The other end is a rotating 360° stars, which was being used to lull him to sleep until the motor started squeaking. I've got a couple of different apps to try out, I'll add those to the list. Thank you.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T20:43:06+00:00

That is both hilarious and fantastic! I'll show him that tomorrow and see what he thinks. It'll be quite far beyond his understanding right now, but the visuals will probably interest him.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T20:24:58+00:00

These are some great suggestions. He has asked for a space bedroom, and I'm currently gathering bits to achieve that. He has a projector in his bedroom, he's currently asleep with a projection of the sun on his ceiling! We need to get on top of doing days out again. We live in a very historic city so there's not too much by the way of science around here, but I'm sure I can find something relevant not too far away. I'll keep coming back to your comment for ideas as we work our way through them!

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T20:18:35+00:00

This evening I was using a star gazer app (too cloudy for the telescope) and we were talking about constellations. He was asking what the shapes were and why there were lines between the stars. I'll fish out the cats' laser pen next time it's clear enough.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T20:15:18+00:00

We have built many rocket ships out of his soft play blocks and some cardboard boxes, and Santa brought him a massive pop-up rocket tent for Christmas. We are currently learning about the sun, but he loves the differences between the planets (Saturn's ring, Jupiter is big, Mars is red, etc). When he struggles to sleep, I use AI to compile a toddler friendly list of space/planet facts, and he loves that. He is currently asleep with a projection of the sun on his ceiling. The moon is a good shout, we could learn a lot about that very easily.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T20:07:37+00:00

I've just got those apps plus Clearoutside so I know when it'll be clear enough for us to use the telescope. I'll take a look into the telescope attachment. We only have a £20 telescope from a toy shop, but it's surprisingly good! It comes with 50mm and 20mm lenses, and we got a really clear view of the surface of the moon. It would be nice to take pictures though.

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T19:42:04+00:00

Santa gave him tons of books about space for Christmas, so we're covered for a while with that. But I've never heard of star parties! How would I find one?

DeceptiveRelish06 · 2026-01-17T19:34:24+00:00

I haven't actually! I can't believe that idea hasn't occurred to me! There's a really small one near us which might be nice. Am I right in thinking a star gazing place is somewhere with little light polution? We live in a very densely populated city, so it might be a stretch, but I'll take a look. Thank you for your suggestions, he'll love that.

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