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The original was posted on /r/space by /u/AnandYadav7 on 2026-05-15 06:13:58+00:00.

My daughter Aanya is around 20 months old. I've been showing her the night sky almost every evening since she was about 9 months old.

Started simple: stepping outside our home after sunset, holding her, pointing at the moon. For weeks she just looked at me, not the moon. Around 13 months, she pointed at it on her own for the first time. Now she points and says "moon" and "star" without prompting.

At 12 months I added a small home sky projector with 12 discs (moon, Earth, nebula, solar system, galaxy, etc.) the one that is available on amazon. I run it during bedtime for about 10 minutes, until she dozes off. The Earth disc is her favourite. She points at the blue parts and says "ball" and "water". I never taught her that. She got there on her own.

A few things that surprised me is the outdoor sky still does more emotional work than any projector. 9-13 months is too young for facts but exactly right for wonder. She doesn't need to know Saturn has rings yet. I just repeated simple words no new fancy vocabulary. We use maybe 7 words total: moon, star, sun, Earth, ball, water, nebula. That's it.

Most parenting content tells you to wait until age 4-5 for astronomy. I'm not convinced. The wonder window seems to open much earlier and close by school age.

Honest question for parents who've done this, when did you start with your kids, and what worked? Wondering if my "start at 9 months" thing is unusual or normal.