Story time is often part of a child’s bedtime routine. Many times, children want to read multiple books, or, rather, have their parents read them multiple books, or perhaps read the same book 17 times.

While it’s wonderful for parents to read to their children, reading the same books over and over can get boring (for parents), and perhaps there are more educational books out there for kids to discover.

Story Time from Space is a program that literally makes story time out of this world fun. Literally. The stories are read by astronauts in outer space, the astronauts are filmed while they are reading the stories, and the videos are edited and shared so that children can watch them. Not only do children get exposed to new books about different STEM topics like physics and chemistry, but they also get a look inside the International Space Station.

Story Time from Space is the brainchild of the former director of education at Space Center Houston, Patricia Tribe, and NASA astronaut Alvin Drew. They wanted to come up with a way to encourage kids to read while also promoting STEM education. 

Drew was the first astronaut to participate in the program. He read a book during the space shuttle Discovery’s final mission. All other books have been read from the International Space Station.

Another perk of this program is that a diverse group of astronauts have participated, so kids can see that no matter what you look like, you too could be an astronaut. The program could encourage kids to literally reach for the stars.

There are currently five different stories that your children can watch astronauts read from space, and they are all available on YouTube. The stories are Max Goes to the International Space Station, The Wizard Who Saved the World, Max Goes to the Moon, Khalifa and Amal Go to Space, and Rosie Revere, Engineer. More books are on the way.

While stories read from space are cool, the fun isn’t over. The next concept that’s being worked on is having astronauts conduct science experiments in space that kids can do at home. We definitely think we would’ve been more excited about science when we were kids if we had been able to watch astronauts read stories and conduct science experiments from space!

What do you think about the Story Time from Space idea? Are your kids going to watch these videos?