A Homeschool Lesson to Blow Your Mind: Interactive Scale of the Universe

My oldest, Wing Nut is 11, and is constantly trying to wrap his head around things like traveling close enough to the speed of light to travel in time, how big the universe actually is, wondering why it would take so long to terraform Mars, or how come we don’t feel the earth moving if we are moving so fast. He also wonders about atoms, molecules, and why we can’t see everything on our skin. If given the chance to watch anything on Netflix, he will most likely choose a documentary on space, and then ask me a million questions about everything he just learned.

I wish there was a way to embed the Interactive Scale of the Universe, but I didn’t see anything. This is a screenshot of the first image that shows up.

Every time we visit this site, we see and learn something new. When you go to the website, and start the interactive universe, there is a sliding scale at the bottom. Pretty simple, scroll left to go smaller, right to head out into the universe. The images are clickable and include a snippet of information about each image. They all have fun facts, and some have fun quirky comments by the authors of this site.

I have spent countless hours trying to {successfully} explain the both the microscopic world unseen to us, as well as the enormous unbelievably vast expansive space that the universe  holds. It is so very hard to tell if my kids actually understand it, but when they come to me with questions, I don’t always have the ability to explain it to them. When the kids ask how big would a dinosaur be if we were standing next to it, or is Asia really bigger than the Moon, I have a simple and fun visual to pull up on my laptop and show them. The Scale of the Universe is one of my favorite random Homeschool tools, and Wing Nut has this website pinned to his start screen on his computer so he can find it quickly. I would love to hear what you think of it.