I’m having a hard time getting P to understand that she needs to go to bed even though the sun is still up. Every night she says “It’s not sleepy time Mamma. It’s not dark.” I’ve been trying to explain that during the summer the sun goes to bed later. I can tell this isn’t sinking in so I’ve been looking for videos or images on line to explain to her why the sun is up so much longer. I’m not sure how this is going to go. There’s so much more to it: the earth’s axis, the spinning around the sun, our position on the planet. I’m not sure this is going to make sense. However, I love taking the opportunity to educate her about things that are relevant to her. The sun going to sleep late is relevant to her right now. I just need to explain why with my non-scientific brain in a very fun, cartoonish kind of way. It may come down to me using an orange on a skewer with a flashlight in the dark closet. In anyone has any other ideas, please let me know.
So far these are the sights I’ve found useful:
Fretzreview:
This site has great videos and graphics. They help me understand it better but I think they are too complex for a 2 year old.
Astronomy.com
Has a section for kids. I think I’ll come back more to this one when we go camping and I need to learn about constellation names myself.
Has a good animation of the different height of the sun in winter vs summer.
Nice explanation and a great graphic. I think graphics are easier for toddlers to grasp.
And finally I grabbed this image but I can’t remember from where: