The Next Generation

 My granddaughter Eevee, is 5 and in kindergarten. Several times when I have set up my scope in the backyard, either the XT10 or my 4 inch refractor, Eevee comes out and loves to look through the eyepiece. She asks me what I am looking at and right now her favorite thing to observe is the moon. 

Eevee and her brother get KiwiCo. kits which are educational toys that are creative and engaging. Eevee got her astronomy where we created a solar system module and a space shuttle launching platform. 

Of course, Eevee asked me to help her build and put this together. She painted all the planets herself and I love how she did them! I've kept that now in my office so together we can review her planets! 

Now last week as I was touching up and working on darkening my sketches, Eevee came in from using her roller stakes and asked me if she could do astro art. I gave her two paint brushes, white and gray pastel chalk and black paper. She went to work. As she sketched she said she wanted to go to the telescope and do art at the telescope. 

Here she is practicing sketching! 

You can see the beginning of her first sketch here. She has told me she wants to go the desert with PaPa, look through the telescope, do art at the telescope and camp over. She loves camping and is beginning to love astronomy! Hope she sticks with it but her PaPa wil ldo everything she can to help her! I believe this is how we get a younger generation interesting in our hobby, but helping them to be hands on with it!