Be Kind to Spiders Week 2022: Spider Documentaries for the Family • Cheers! with Chelsea

I have watched a plethora of spider documentaries, but I wanted to take it a step further by finding ones the whole family could enjoy. I love learning about animals and have animal documentaries always at the ready. Despite my interests, my two-year-old and four-year-old don’t always find them as engaging. Thankfully, YouTube came to the rescue!

I collected eight mini documentaries for your family to enjoy. Most of these videos average around 5 minutes or shorter to best cater to the little ones. The last two are longer in length, but I make a point of noting how they were received by my children so you can use your best judgement.

BBC Earth Kids | Wild Bites: Spiders’ Silk is 5 Times STRONGER than Steel!

A fun short segment packed full of facts with language that’s very kid friendly and easy for littles to comprehend. This video is more of a rapid-fire fact check for spiders, even thought it’s titled as if it will only discuss a spider’s silk. As a warning, it does have a little more of a creepy/sinister tone around the halfway point as they discuss spider venom and bites. Still, it’s a great video to share with the family with a subtle humor parent viewers will get a chuckle out of.

Nat Geo Kids | Amazing Animals: Tarantula

Another fast-paced video aimed for the kiddos. Thye kept the information simple and short making it a quick infomercial for the Tarantual. The content stayed light and wouldn’t really be too scary or grim for your little ones. I felt it sped by maybe just a little too quickly, but that’s my own personal opinion.

Wizz | Spiders for Kids

https://youtu.be/WUx2qqPUyOI

This looks to be a segment of a tv series from Australia that focuses on an appreciation for the less loved smaller critters. The hostess, Jess is so enthusiastic and it’s so refreshing to see someone just as in love with these tiny creatures. She conveys her passion well with the children she interacts with. I especially love how she encourages the children to find the spiders with her and gives tips on how to locate them around your own home. Her approach is very hands off, observation only, which is such a great skill for children to learn.

Deep Look | For These Tiny Spiders, It’s Sing or Get Served

Little Monster is a sponge and is all about absorbing those wild animal facts so she really enjoys anything from Deep Look. Even though the content might be slightly advanced for my littles, the amazing animal footage and average episode length of 5 minutes or less work great for a brief tv time session.

There are four other spider-based videos from Deep Look that I didn’t include here because I wanted to highlight as many options as possible, but this nature channel has to be one of my favorite picks. If you like this one, be sure to check out their Male Black Widow, Tarantulas, A Spider’s Web and Turret Spiders videos. (click on each name to be taken to their respective segment)

SciShow Kids | Don’t Be Afraid of Spiders

SciShow Kids focuses on answering inquiries from their viewers. This particular video is presented in a way to help their audience be not as scared of spiders. The hostess goes into detail on understanding the difference between a spider and insect, which I found really cool.

Tarantula Collective | Top 10 Strange Facts About Tarantulas

This video felt like a perfect one to include. Not to mention, the spider and tarantula footage comes from his own tarantula collection which is absolutely stunning. While the facts presented are intended for older audiences, they may not be of interest to younger ones. However, the footage is beyond gorgeous which was enough to keep my littles’ interest.

Smithsonian Channel | Crazy Monsters: Spiders

This episode makes me think of an old show we used to watch when I was little. I found the narrator engaging and the facts very interesting. At the same time, they introduce a wide range of spiders and their cousins. When previewing this episode, Little Monster stopped what she was doing to come and watch it with me. She was completely absorbed.

BBC’s Spider House

I saw this unique documentary a really long time ago and have yet to find a DVD copy. Thankfully, I have this YouTube video, although I thought it might be a little too long for my littles at an hour and a half in length. Surprisingly, Little Monster was completely enthralled! The experiment presented in this documentary is really unique but not for severe arachnophobes. This is because it is all about studying the habits of spiders in our homes. Use discretion when watching because my own resident arachnophobe could NOT handle the thought of this experiment.

Documentaries are always a blast. However, I understand that others may prefer more fictional entertainment. In fact, I have done quite a few posts on spider-based film entertainment!

Which documentary hit off well with your family? Do you have one I’ve missed that I should know about? Be sure to let me know down in the comments so I can save it for future Be Kind to Spiders Week celebrations!