Cousins Book Club: Charlotte's Web

 

We had our first cousins book club on Friday night. I already can't wait until the next one. We had such a great time. We started with a discussion of the book. It was really fun to hear the comments made by the five cousins: Collin, Hannah, Luke, Josie, and Mae.

They shared their favorite parts from the book, and discussed what it means to be a good friend. Next, Miriam had prepared a garbage can full of pages torn from recycled magazines. The kids rummaged through the trash to find words that describe a friend. We glued them to our own version of Charlotte's web. 

Clean up was a breeze because Miriam had also made a sticky tape web using a hula hoop. Kids picked up the trash on the floor and threw it in the web. The kids took a break and played outside while Josie helped prepare the "pig slop" surprise.

She stirred up some ice-cream, chocolate syrup, strawberries, bananas, and Oreo cookies. And Miriam slopped into each kids' bowl with a ladle. The kids ate the slop like pigs...no spoons allowed. They slurped up the slop then ran to the bathroom to see how messy their faces looked. Lots of laughter there. 

We ended the night watching the movie Charlotte's Web. At the part where Charlotte spins her first web, Luke went over to the shelf and picked up the jar I had brought with a real spider in it. He held it tenderly and with respect, almost reverence and awe. My favorite quote from the book comes from the part when Fern's  mother is talking to the town shrink. Dr. Dorian says, referring to the words in the web:  

“I don’t understand it. But for that matter I don’t understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle.” 

Nature is a miracle we don't often take the time to appreciate. But it's why I love science. I am in awe of nature. I hope my kids learn to appreciate the ordinary miracles that happen all around them.