Spark Talking Telscope from Discovery
When the Parent Bloggers Network sent out an offer for bloggers to review the Spark Talking Telescope from the Discovery Channel Store, I think it took me approximately 3 seconds to reply with a very big YES PLEASE, of course I would love a complimentary telescope to review!
This is a space family. I’ve been interested in astronomy since I was a young girl, and unlike other childhood interests, this one stuck around for good (note the domain name - andromeda? That’s not for the lame TV show, I chose my domain based on my favorite galaxy. Yes, I have a favorite galaxy. Hush.). George enjoys watching space shows on Discovery and follows NASA launches. It was pretty inevitable that at least one of our kids would have an interest as well. Hayley is fascinated by anything to do with space (and Breanna’s not too far behind, at least based on how often she screams, “MOON!” from the window and how many times I saw her steal this telescope when Hayley wasn’t looking).
Hayley nearly burst when I showed her the telescope. We got it out and set it up as soon as it arrived. It comes with a drawer full of slides that contain beautiful images of space objects directly from NASA. It includes things in our own solar system (all the planets, the sun, and the moon, as well as the asteroid belt) as well as other further deep space items like comets, a nebula, and galaxies.
Hayley caught on quickly to how it worked; you simply insert a slide of your choice, turn the telescope on, enter in the three-letter code on the slide, and the telescope narrates short blurbs of information. What I liked about it is that it doesn’t overwhelm you with five minutes of chattering details. You get a couple of sentences and then it asks you if you want to continue before sharing another piece of trivia about the slide you’re viewing. When you’re done, you can play a quiz game that asks you questions based on what you’ve learned.
Right now, Hayley isn’t that interested in the quiz part but she loves looking at the pictures and listening to the narration. It always surprises me how much she takes in because she has regularly thrown out information to me about what she has learned from the telescope. There’s nothing like sitting at the dinner table and having your four-year-old randomly blurt out that “comets are made of ice, and can I have some more juice please?”
The telescope is really perfect for introducing young kids to outer space. There’s just the right amount of detail - enough to keep them interested but not so much that their eyes glaze over and they end up tuning out. In Hayley’s case, it also leads to further learning because she ends up asking me questions that go a bit beyond what is covered with the telescope - in which case I’m glad I AM a space fanatic so that I can answer them! We’ve also spent a bit of time on Nasa’s website lately because of interests sparked by using the telescope. Once she sees the images on the slides, she wants to see even more. Anything that promotes this much curiosity and learning is wonderful.
Frankly, the excellent nature of this toy (and I use the word “toy” loosely and only because it’s fun - it’s really so much more than just a toy what with all the learning going on) is not a surprise. Remember where it comes from - Discovery is one of our favorite channels in this household, and so it’s really to be expected that of course the Spark Talking Telescope would be awesome. In fact, the only downfall I was able to think of was that it came with a catalog of other great Discovery Store toys you can buy and now I want to buy at least half of them!
Definitely a good purchase for anyone with a kid who has ever asked how many stars are in the sky or who looks up automatically to find the moon at night!
November 28th, 2007 at 11:11 am
And then you wonder how she knows that blue stars are the hottest ?
I’d listen to that narrating going on, big chance that it’s actually hidden in there.