Re: Observing with Children???

Dawn,

Not only does Cloudy Nights have about 25 articles from the contest
(go to reviews - articles - kids), but also on the forums side look
for the topic Outreach and you will find additional posts on this
subject.

Binoculars on a parallelogram are a tremendous benefit in a crowd with
kids.  The p-gram allows easy adjustment from adult to kid and thew
field of view is so wide it's easy to see stuff.

Equatoral mounts with battery drives to help tracking are a big
benefit.  Otherwise you need to enlist a kid or a parent at each scope
to keep the object centered.

If you don't have clock drives, this can be a good way to involve some
of the more active young boys.  Give them a responsibility to keep a
scope on target and now they are the boss.  It's everything they had
hoped for, especially when his best buddy steps up for a view and he's
in charge!

A walkaround with the crowd that takes no more than 2-3 minutes is
helpful.  Show them what they can touch and what not.  Make the kids
repeat it back to you.  Keep an eye out for the one's who must break
the rules.

Be ready to accept some actions you won't like.  These are kids. 
You're not there to scold or punish them.  You are there to teach
them.

edz