There are plenty of ways that one can teach children to appreciate the threshold of outer space. For children, their imagination drives everything that they do. Outer space, a world beyond our world, is something that children will love to learn about. The planets, the Sun, the Moon and the asteroids are just some of the things that will certainly tickle the kids’ fancy.
Of course, teaching them astronomy deals with more than just imagination. You have to teach them facts, things that have been proven true, rather than just whimsical details as this will instead cause them not to learn anything. You have to go easy on the facts, however, as children’s minds are not fit to digest complicated details. You have to keep them pure and simple.
Here are some Solar System Facts For Kids that you can start with for your teaching.
Formation of the Solar System
The formation of the solar system is a very complicated matter but you can simplify it for the kids’ benefit.
It all started with the formation of the Sun, which was caused by the collapse of a massive cloud of dust and gas. For a while, the Sun gathered up the dust and gas around it until it had enough fuel to ignite itself. The ignition caused a storm of solar winds, which blew outward towards other clumps of dust and gas farther away from the Sun. Some of these clumps had formed to become the celestial bodies of our Solar System, but some of them had been deprived of space dust and gas in the middle of their growth by the solar winds so they ended up being smaller than the other planets. These planets are the inner ones, which includes our Earth, Venus, Mercury and Mars.
The Wonders of the Solar System
Solar system facts for kids should also show what are the wonders that the children can enjoy from the solar system. The solar system is a very diverse system, with many different celestial bodies – all with their own features – populating it. For example, Saturn is a big, big world which is surrounded by smaller worlds, and so do the other planets in the outer ring. Some of these smaller worlds are remarkable including Io, a volcanic moon with lots of active volcanoes. Europa, on the other hand, is a true blue water world.
Who would forget about the Oort Cloud and Kuniper Belt in the outer reaches of our solar system? This is where those “dirty snowballs” or comets come from!


