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Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Our family of chimps

I figured Jimmer would be pretty excited to name his new life-sized chimp he received for his birthday. Yes, he did name the chimp, but it was much different than what I expected.

He named it Flo. I introduce to you, Flo...
I should explain that Jimmer also received the Jane Goodall documentary, Among the Wild Chimpanzees, National Geographic Special (1984) for his birthday. (I'm sure you learned about her work in grade school science class like I did!) It's an entertaining and wonderfully moving story about a family of chimps she has been studying in east Africa since 1960. Watching it not only helps to understand chimpanzees, but it also makes you learn about yourself, and it stirs some emotions in little kids as we found out while we were putting them to bed that evening.

Flo is the mom of Flint and Fifi (and others). She died while Flint, who was over 8 years old, was still very attached to her. Flint died one month afterwards of, essentially, a broken heart. Poor thing. With a very concerned look, Mikey later asked that evening, "How can somebody die just because they're so sad?" Simple question--complex answer.
Flo with silly Flint

Back to our stuffed chimps...
Shockingly, Jimmer has even renamed his beloved Chimpy. Chimpy's new name is now Flint, Flo's baby boy.

While the kids play with the chimps around here (and before we add any more chimps to the crew), Jimmer is now also referring to Mary Kate as Fifi, Flint's very motherly older sister.

2 comments:

c.jo said...

Have you seen "Escape to Chimp Eden" -- it's a series filmed at the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden, shown on Animal Planet and maybe Discovery too. I fell in love with the series, and the trainer Eugene Cussons. It's really well done. Check out these links!

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/chimp-eden/chimp-eden.html

http://www.janegoodall.co.za/

Robin said...

I love your blog and hope you don't mind that I am following your journey a bit. Feel free to visit my blog. I think it's pretty cool that your little boy has retained such a knowledge of all that happened with Jane Goodall and her experiences with chimps. That is real home school learning. Some things really stick. And sometimes these little things in our children's lives help to shape them into who they will become, like little pieces of a puzzle. In the end, all that we pour into them becomes a beautiful picture. Don't you just love it?! What a privilege we home school moms have. We get to see and be a part of more of their journey...