Insert "out of this world" pun here

A few days ago, my 5-year-old announced that she wanted to schedule a playdate with a boy in her class. And for some reason, I was a little freaked out at the idea. I asked her what she and D. would play with if he came over. Right away she mentioned her telescope, her art supplies, and her puppet theatre. And almost as quickly I came to my senses and said "OK, I'll call D's mom."

We haven't had the playdate yet, but Jo's idea to show her friend her telescope is perfect. We've loved playing with this toy (received for review via Parent Bloggers Network) and I'm sure D. will too. Even my 2-year-old has had fun checking it out, although he doesn't have the attention span or motor skills to really enjoy it.

Five-year-old Jo, on the other hand, mastered it right away. Following the simple instructions that came in the box (there's a set for the kiddie scientists and a set for their parents--brilliant!), we learned how to choose a slide from the telescope's drawer (on the back of the unit--you can't see it in the picture), place it into the viewer, and press the buttons on the telescope's base. Rather than really looking out into the night sky, you view images on the slides (because really, I don't have room in my backyard for one of these).

The 20 slides feature photos straight from NASA of all the key players in the solar system (including dear little Pluto) and other goodies like the Space Shuttle and asteroids. With the slide in place, you can choose to hear facts about the image you're seeing, or take a quiz. My daughter preferred the quiz option, even when she knew nothing about the topic (the kindergarten curriculum hasn't exactly covered the solar system yet). I gently encouraged her to maybe try the facts first. Once she did she realized that was a better way to ace the quiz.

Our only complaint about this toy is that we couldn't figure out how to switch from one slide to another without turning off the telescope altogether. Each slide has a code that you have to enter to tell the audio chip (Hi, Chip!) which facts to announce. Once you've listened to them all, you can switch to a new slide--but we were never able to get the scope to understand that we'd done this unless we turned it off first. A minor quibble, and almost certainly attributable to user stupidity error.

Since I didn't order the product myself, I'm not offering a review of the Discovery Channel Store itself, in terms of price, customer service, etc. I will say that I was impressed with the packaging this toy was shipped in--a cardboard box only slightly bigger than the box the toy comes in, padded with nothing but easily recyclable paper. And the telescope was ready to use right out of the box--no wrestling with those crazy-making twisty wire things or hard plastic strips. Yes, it's plastic, and yes, it's made in China. But it's a sturdy, educational toy that I'm pretty certain will not be chewed on. I'm even more certain that we'll be playing with it for years to come.