Be Nice to Spiders

This time of year we always have great orb webs with big brown spiders around the outside of the house.  One year a web was stretched across our back door and Chris walked right through it.  The spider was on his back and we were all yelling at him as he walked across the yard!  It was pretty comical.   (If anyone is curious, I've identified them as European Garden spiders and they are quite fascinating to watch.)  So in honor of these spiders, a book about them and how good they are.

Be Nice to Spiders

Margaret Bloy Graham 1967

When a spider named Helen ends up at the zoo the zookeeper at first doesn't realize how great she is at keeping the flies away from the other animals.  In the end she gets the appreciation all spiders deserve.

Speaking of creepy crawlies, I cleaned my kitchen with tea tree oil and the ants have disappeared.

When We Went to the Zoo

We're taking a little birthday zoo trip today for Charlotte's 2nd birthday (shhhh....Madeleine and Henry are skipping school). We read this book this morning to get in a zoo mood.


When We Went to the Zoo 
Jan Ormerod 1990

Years ago when Madeleine and Henry were very little I belonged to a children’s club that sent us books and crafts in the mail. It wasn’t very expensive and we received many great books that way- all hardbacks no less. Jan Ormerod is one of those illustrators that whenever I see a book by her I snatch it up.





This is a simple story of a father with his two children walking around the zoo. On each page they describe what animals they see, deciding at the end that they liked the sparrows best. The last end pages have the same picture of the zoo map as the front, but with their path drawn in. Madeleine loves this part. We’ve also gone back to find the sparrows on each page.


We sang, "Hi-de-hi-de-ho, the elephant is so slow."


And in the end we liked that best, spying the sparrows and their nest.