This is not a sponsored post. Promoting literacy is a cause that I am passionate about, and Story Time from Space is a spectacular way to get kids excited about reading.

Story Time from Space: An Out-of-This-World Literacy Experience

To kids, astronauts are just about the coolest people in the universe (I was going to say on the planet, but they’re not exactly always on the planet, now are they?) There is just something about them that appeals to both boys and girls of all ages. Maybe it’s because they have a chance to explore places that most of us only dream about. If you want to get a child interested in doing something, just have an astronaut tell them to do it! Better yet, have an astronaut lead them by example!

Story Time from Space: Taking Literacy Out of this World

Story Time from Space: An Out-of-This-World Literacy Experience

Story Time from Space is the brain child of educator Patricia Tribe and astronaut Alvin Drew. Other educators and scientists joined in on the mission. What is that mission? Sending books to the space station so astronauts can read them to children around the world. While that is cool enough all on its own, the astronauts will also conduct experiments and share them with kids.

The first five books for Story Time from Space have arrived at the space station. These books were written by Jeffrey Bennett. The first book, “Max Goes to the International Space Station” is already live on the Story Time from Space website. The tale is read by astronaut Mike Hopkins from the space station’s seven-window observatory, called the Cupola.  The story follows Max the dog as he learns about life on the space station and explores the unusual effects of microgravity. You can find the video under “Stories” on the website. I checked it out and it’s just so cool! I LOVE that Story Time from Space is offering these videos free of charge to parents, children and educators.

Story Time from Space goes beyond promoting literacy. The cross-content curriculum- including activities and experiments- are designed to go along with the Next Generation Science Standards. Everything, including the videos, will be posted right on the Story Time from Space website. This allows everyone from parents to librarians to educators easy access to all the great tools.

How can you help Story Time from Space

Story Time from Space: An Out-of-This-World Literacy Experience

The scientists, researches and even NASA have helped make Story Time from Space a reality by getting those first books up to the space station. That’s a MAJOR undertaking, don’t you think? They did the hard part! Now, they need our help to get Story Time from Space into classrooms throughout the world. They also need our help in building science experiments to send into space for the astronauts to work on, then share with children.

Story Time from Space is trying to raise $35,000 to take this amazing literacy and science program to the next level. You can donate as little as $1. For as little as $5, you can get a really cool Story Time from Space bookmark as a thank you gift. The rewards get more awesome from there with each donation level, including a chance to have an in-person chat and story time session with a real astronaut! Check out the Kickstarter campaign to learn how you can donate to this fantastic literacy tool. The campaign ends on July 6th.