Cub Scouts Astronomy Belt Loop and Pin

Hank and I have really enjoyed Cub Scouts this year. They have all sorts of awards and such that he can earn on his own and with his Den, and I've found quite a bit of Cub Scout stuff that ties in pretty nicely with what we're doing in homeschool. Two birds. One stone.  Happy lazy Mommy.

One belt loop and pin he has most recently completed the requirements for is Astronomy. You may remember in early November we took a quick field trip to a planetarium that is staffed by and financed through the public school system. They have an open house twice a year when weird, unsocialized homeschoolers are allowed to come.

A couple of the last requirements he needed to complete were finding and explaining the importance of the North Star and how to use a Star Map.  It just so happened that the nice people at the planetarium gave us a star map for October and November so we just needed a nice clear night for daddy to be home - because I couldn't find the North Star unless it had a big neon arrow pointing to it, which it doesn't so I can't.

Finally the planets aligned and we had both so they tromped out to the hill in our yard to see what they could see.

Ella is a teeny peanut so she climbed a tree for a better look

Right there, see?

Then I had him sit down with me and explain the importance of the North Star along with the basic definitions of some astronomical terms.  It's always interesting to hear what kids hear when you explain something. You could go on and on about something thinking you've stressed one important point, when your kid heard and remembered something different.

So Hank told me that the North Star is important because you use it to find the Little Dipper. And if you ever don't know where East is, you can find the North Star and then you know where East is.

File that one in your memory bank, folks. It could save your life one day.