Teaching Astronomy from Early Childhood age

by Iharka Szücs-Csillik and István Szűcs

In most cases, the first teachers we have in our lives are our parents. We know that a
teacher’s job is finding the way to open a child’s heart and mind. Two beautiful ideas,
but seldom this happens inversely: the kid teach parents.

Our daughter was four years old when she put a lot of questions about sky; we try to
translate our astronomical knowledge to her level, and we observed that she
understand many things. We test our experiment firstly in a kindergarten in Romania,
and then in a few kindergarten in Hungary and Austria. Our daughter helped us a lot in
our experiment, and moreover these little children taught us joy, happiness, playfulness
and gratitude. The results were amazing. These little children were very interested to
know the Universe and they could accumulate basic astronomical knowledge.

In 2010 we published our experiments in books written in four languages: English,

German, Hungarian and Romanian.

The book, entitled “First steps… one cannot start too soon. Teaching Astronomy to
small children”, attempts to introduce teacher education in teaching astronomy to
kindergarten, pre-schooled, primary children, and as the title shows it contains the “first
steps” in astronomical knowledge.

It is divided in two major parts: core and supplemental material - four detailed lesson
plans (curriculum and additional explanation); and theories of the education and training
for adopters of kindergarten didactics (syllabus, education methodology, techniques,
strategies, tools). The Main material is presented in the core material as well as five
themes: I. Solar System, II. Orientation, III. Ecology, IV. Space travel and V.
Observatory.

All along, these lessons we teach using playful methods, through help of many popular
songs, poems, and plays created by the authors. The authors seek apprehension
through combining traditional and modern tools.

The second part describes and complements the knowledge of kindergartens didactics,
which is necessary in the everyday preoccupation of the kindergarten. It explain the age
specifics of small children, prepares the kindergarten educators to choose the proper
didactic, curriculum and educational tools.

The pedagogical optimism and cheerfulness increases the trust of kids, are there more
amazing pedagogical jobs than what the authors experienced? Transforming our
education is a very long process, but not impossible. Re-altering the own concept of the
education is crucial. It is a long method but not impossible. The book proves this.
Success was demonstrated in practice; children were very active, enjoyed the lessons
and gained useful knowledge. The authors’ merit is in the idea of teaching the
orientation: Let’s think about how important it is for small children to understand
directions, orientate themselves. If they get lost somehow, it shouldn’t be panic that
comes over them, but the ability to find their way home. The authors offer some
professional pedagogue, andragogue advice for kindergarten educators, showing how
they imagined astronomy as part of the kindergarten education.

The book is a triple premier in the education area:

- in didactical astronomy: teaching to small children (3 to 8 years old);

- in kindergarten, preschool and primary didactic: detailed lesson plans with particular
methodology;

- in pedagogy, andragogy: theories, methods, tools and practices in one book for
teaching astronomy.

This book is dedicated to kindergarten, preschool and primary teachers, presenter of

science programmers, who would consider introducing astronomy to kids, and parents
who also find this knowledge useful for their children.
Fig. Cover of the Book
Fig. The Earth is there, isn’t it?
Fig. I hope to see something in telescope …
Fig. Full Moon

This research was described in the an article entitled First steps in Astronomy, published in the
Romanian Astronomical Journal, Vol. 20 (Supplement), p. 201–204, Bucharest, 2010.