On the hunt....

A couple of nights ago, we decided to go on a Spider Hunt.

I've been reading a lot of different books on 'kid's activity ideas', and had come across an idea that said: Catch a spider and watch it spin it's web!

Huh. Sounds cool. Actually, it sounds really cool. Trap the little beasty and then watch it, in all it's glory, shoot silk from it's rear. Doesn't get more "hands-on" than that, eh?!! I'm all for it.

So off we go, armed with a stick, a container, and two eager little girls! ...Notice, I'm the one taking the pictures. Jet is the one doing the dirty work!! :)

It was amazing to me how we couldn't find a spider any where! I mean, they are usually everywhere! In fact, the other day, during Charis and my "art lesson on the tree," one very large one started to crawl on us. I smashed it with a near by stick. But NOW that the spider was the prey...they are no where to be found. Hmmm...maybe word got out about "those murderers armed with sticks"?
Jet ended up finding two smaller ones on the side of our shed. ...We later traded those in for a bigger spider that we found after dark. One that looked like it could pop out a web in no time!
The idea was that if you put two sticks in a closed container...with water on the bottom...that the spider would use the sticks to spin a web. The logic being that the spider hates water and will therefore want to avoid it.

Well...this spider apparently had never read that book. Instead of remaining rational and spinning a web, it freaked out. Scratching at the wall of the container for for-ever! I finally had to go to bed. ...the next morning it had made one small strand of web. Just enough for him to sleep on it. And so he did.

For the next 24 hours.

Charis came into the dining room at one point during the day and informed me, rather matter of factly, "The spider is dead. Or it's dying. Can we throw it outside?"

So much for our creative little science project. Oh well...half the fun (in this case 100% of the fun) was in spider-hunting with Daddy.