As a teacher, daycare center staff member or as a parent, it will be important to help your children to learn the right way to protect his or her eyes with a solar eclipse viewer if you are planning on taking in the solar eclipse.
This is great opportunity for children to have a unique experience and one that they will certainly remember. It is also a perfect opportunity to talk to kids about the planets, the solar system, and about space in general. To get started, all parents and teachers will need to do is work with the kids to learn eclipse eye safety.
Glasses or Viewers?
There are companies that make specialized solar eclipse viewer designs as well as eclipse glasses that are extremely low cost. There are durable and strong, and they cost less than a dollar per viewer.
Glasses or viewers from specialized eclipse glass companies are a good choice. For smaller children the “one size fits all” glasses may be a bit big and difficult to keep in the correct spot if they look up and down.
On the other hand, the solar eclipse viewer is a lightweight cardboard card that measures five inches by three inches. A child can easily hold the card in front of his or her eyes for the short time of the total eclipse and then during the few seconds of the movement of the moon away from the sun.
Practice Makes Perfect
It is a good idea to provide the viewers to the kids in advance of the big day. This allows them to experiment with looking through the viewers. The teacher or parent can even practice getting them to use the viewers and then holding them in place for a minute or two during what will be the time of the actual eclipse.
Practice with the children to ensure they know to hold the viewer in front of their eyes, and not to look at the sun without the viewer until the parent or teacher gives the all clear signal.
This is also a good time to talk to the children about the dangers of looking directly at the sun. Most children will be able to understand how it hurts their eyes to see the flash of a reflection on a sunny day or to see the reflection of the sun off of a body of water and this can be a simple comparison or reference to use.
