When I grow up…
I want to be an astronaut
When your child dreams of space, here's what that dream is made of — right here on the ground.
Ages are guides, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home → · See it on the map →
What this is, really
Astronauts travel into space to explore it and to do experiments. They train for years, work in a team, and stay calm when things are hard — and most of that training starts with school subjects.
The seeds are already on the map
23 real skills your child can already meet at primary school, grouped into 6 strands. Every one links to its full page.
ScienceMathematicsLearning to LearnPersonal & Social DevelopmentEnglish
Our place in space
The Sun, Moon, planets, and how Earth moves through space.
Why things float and fall
Pushes, pulls, and the gravity that keeps us on the ground.
Numbers and measuring
Space runs on maths. Counting, guessing sizes, and measuring.
Testing and spotting patterns
Try something, watch what happens, and use the pattern to guess what's next.
The body and a steady head
Looking after your body, working as a team, and staying calm.
Reading and finding out
Reading about space and learning its words.
What it looks like at each age
Your child looks up at the Moon and asks big questions. That wondering is where every astronaut starts.
They learn the Sun, Moon, and planets, and love that people have really walked on the Moon.
They can picture how Earth spins and orbits, and get why gravity holds us down.
They can measure, spot patterns, and understand the maths behind flying into space.
Try this together
Free, low-key, and doable tonight — no special supplies.
Watch the Moon over two weeks and draw its shape each night. What pattern do you see?
Drop a heavy and a light ball at the same time. Which lands first? Try it a few times.
Make a scale of the planets with fruit and pips, and walk out the huge gaps between them.
Lie outside on a clear night and find one star pattern together.
After primary school
Very few people become astronauts — and the shared close below says why that's fine. In high school, maths and science open the door, and most astronauts first train as pilots, doctors, engineers, or scientists. Every one of those is a good life on its own.
The quiet truth
About 70% of what a space explorer needs at primary school also lives inside other dreams on this site — reading well, a feel for numbers, noticing patterns, and sticking with hard things. Dreams change: that is the point of being seven. Nothing your child learns here is wasted.
This page is a map, not a plan. It shows what a dream is made of at primary school — it does not say your child will or won't do this one day, and it measures nothing about them. Explore it together, follow what they love, and let the dream change as often as they like. Learning Map original · CC BY-SA 4.0