The Preschool Homeschool

We have some neat spiders around our house. While my husband’s first inclination is to knock down their web and get rid of them, I’ve convinced him that watching them is much more fun. We now officially have 3 spiders that we’ve invited with the traditional “mi casa es su casa” line. One in the back and two in the front.

The one in the back is huge. It has huge legs, a huge body and a huge web. It’s the neatest one to watch. We’re not sure what type of spiders they are, because I don’t want to get too close, just in case. The big one could probably take out an eye.

The smaller ones have both made webs in the windows next to our front door. This is nice because we can observe her without actually having to go outside and disturb her. I say her because they both have egg sacs. One has 3 egg sacs, of which 2 have already hatched. The other only has 1 egg sac, but I haven’t seen any baby spiders yet.

This is a great homeschooling activity for kids of all ages. We have taken to observing the spiders daily and seeing how things change. Yesterday, one egg sac was covered in babies, which my daughter found thrilling. These spiders are a great opportunity to learn a little more about spiders. What they do, why they’re beneficial, and why it’s not necessary to squash every spider you see. If you haven’t taken to looking around outside your home for a bug or arachnid you can adopt, take your preschooler on an adventure. Look for a spider, ant hill, lizard or anything else that’s native to your area. Observe them on a daily basis to see how they live and change. Read books, color pictures, tell stories and take pictures. There’s no better way to learn about an animal than to be able to relate what you hear and see in books to a real life specimen.

Here’s a couple pics of our resident spiders. The big one is curled up, he’s actually much larger.  And after checking on them real quick while writing this, my daughter noticed that the big spider was off somewhere doing something, but that our mama spiders had good news. The mama with one egg sac had her babies and is working on another sac, while fertile myrtle in the other window now has four egg sacs and a bunch of babies.

This is our big one-he’s curled up though.

Look closely and you can see the babies!