Hands-On Learning {and Fun}: Spiders

 

I had the, ummm… pleasure, of meeting one of these…

 

 

…in the basement the other night as I finished up some work {really. really. late.} and nobody was around to save my family from being murdered in their sleep by snapping fangs and hairy legs, so I had to take care of it. And I did…

I trapped it under a very large bowl {I wasn’t sure if the mason jar I first picked up wouldn’t have just been thrown back at me in the monster’s anger and frustration}, and then I stacked two big gardening books on top of the bowl… and then went to get three more, you know – just in case, and left a note on the bathroom mirror for Brian to get rid of it before the kids and I woke up.

He’s truly my hero – he risked life and limb, but the beast was gone when we got up to start our day.

The incident reminded me of a time, back when we first started homeschooling Trevor, when we chose to learn about spiders. I’m not opposed to the creatures, per say, but I prefer to choose when and where I see them – like outside and through a camera lens… telephoto.

For fun, we made a spider web to play and study in:

 

 

And crawled through it (Look how teeny-tiny the girls are!):

 

 

Then, we curled up to read Spiders by Gail Gibbons:

 

 

I drew a spider on chart paper and Molly colored while Trevor wrote down facts he remembered from the book.

 

 

We went outside after the rain {Did I mention that this is the PERFECT rainy day activity?} and found this gal in the yard… {telephoto lens…}

 

 

My little Baby Logan {at the time} liked the taste of the spider web best…

 

 

What do you do with the kids when you’re trapped inside during spring storms? Have you found ways to weave some learning in there too?