My daughter participates in a writing and grammar program called Essentials.
It’s the next level of learning that follows Classical Conversation’s younger programming, Foundations.
This is her second year and it’s been quite a ride.
She has grown exponentially as a writer.
Not only can she edit quicker, but she also adds and decorates as she writes vs adding these components when she edits.
It’s a really beautiful, though sometimes exhausting, process to witness.
I am very proud of her hard work with her end-of-year research paper.
We had tears.
We started over more than once.
We had a hard time accepting criticism and correction.
But, she (we) made it.
She chose Jane Goodall as her subject and has written a great paper about her life.
Read this paper knowing she is 11 years old (ignore the formatting since it’s blog-style).
I wish I was this skilled a writer at her age.
Jane Goodall
Who is Jane Goodall? Jane Goodall is an extraordinarily courageous researcher in the study of chimpanzees. When she was little, she always wanted to travel to Africa because she wanted to watch chimps in the wild. While she was in Africa, she learned animal behavior at Gombe, which was a national park in Africa, and where Jane met lots of chimpanzees like Flo, David Greybeard and more. Whenever she was a little over 17 years old, she received an invitation to Africa. She sailed to Gombe where she met lots of chimps. During her dark years, Jane lost her favorite animals and people. After that, she started programs and projects.
Jane Goodall was born in London on April 3, 1934. Her dad bought Jane a toy animal in 1935 when she was just over a year old. Jane’s dad bought her a chimpanzee because the first baby chimp in the London Zoo was born, and most baby chimps before they arrive to the London Zoo are born in Africa. The chimp at the zoo was named Jubilee, and so was Jane’s toy chimp. Jubilee looked real and people thought it was too scary for a little girl, but Jane loved Jubilee and took her everywhere. When England declared war with Germany, Jane and her family had to flee into France, but her dad didn’t tagalong with them because he had help fight against Hitler. While her dad was away, she entertained herself with books about animals, which she loved to read very much; her favorite book, out of countless ones, was Tarzan and Jane, but she did not like the movie. She wanted to experience animals in their own habitat but was too young and didn’t have enough money for it. So, she started a nature club instead with her friends. Some of the activities included snail racing, which was positively slow, and watch nature in its own habitat.
In 1956, jane Goodall received an invitation from Clo, who was Jane’s best friend, to visit her new farm in Kenya, Africa. Clo invited Jane to check out her new farm because she knew that Jane loved animals and wanted to take a trip to Africa someday. Jane wanted to go but she had to save money because it was an expensive journey, so she worked as a waitress in a restaurant. Jane finally saved every penny she had and quickly sailed to Africa. On March 13, 1957, when she was still in Africa, she met Louis Leakey, who was an anthropologist. Louis Leakey taught her all about chimps and fossils. In July 1960, on the Gombe stream, she finally experienced the chimps. Jane sat in the same spot every day, which was underneath a colossal maple tree, and was extraordinarily accepted by a family of chimps. When she named them, she didn’t give them numbers, or scientific names, just names that fit the chimps’ personality like Fifi, Flo, Gigi, Faben, and David Greybeard, and more. Flo and David Greybeard were Jane’s favorite chimps.
When Jane Goodall’s dark years began, she was back at home in London and received a telegram from Louis Leaky. It was heart-breaking. Jane’s favorite chimp Flo died. Once Jane arrived back in Gombe, she was even more depressed. Flint, who was Flo’s youngest son, died of depression because his mom wasn’t there anymore. While Jane was at Gombe packing up to travel back home, she received another telegram that was horrible. Her 2nd husband, Derek, died of cancer and they were only married for 5 years. Then five years after Derek’s death, Hugo, Jane’s first husband, also died of cancer. Although Jane was sad with her husband’s deaths, something very exciting happened. One of the female chimps at Gombe amazingly gave birth to twins. Jane and her community named them Roots and Shoots, which was the name of one of her environmental projects.
Jane Goodall started projects and programs because she wanted to help the environment, like Roots and Shoots, ChimpanZoo, and TACARE. Roots and Shoots is a club where people help pick up trash and plant trees all over the world. The ChimpanZoo is another program which helps the chimps live in peace and harmony by providing large cages that act like the chimps’ home. The chimps love it. Last, but not least, TACARE is another environmental project which people plant trees and other greenery to help the wildlife prosper. Since she started these environmental programs and projects, they have slowly helped the environment be a better place.
When Jane was gifted a toy chimp from her father, she loved it very much and took it everywhere. Years later when she arrived at Gombe National Park, Africa, she fell in love with two chimps: David Greybeard and Flo. They were her absolute favorites. She learned wild animal behavior from them. Later in life, Jane married again to a man named Derek, but sadly was only married to him for 5 years because he died of cancer. When she started programs and projects, like TACARE, ChimpanZoo, and Roots and Shoots, they were started to help the environment and more. Jane Goodall, who is the most courageous researcher, continues to fight for animal rights to this day.
Bibliography
Edwards, Roberta. Who is Jane Goodall? Penguin Workshop, 2012
Goodall, Jane. My Life With The Chimpanzees. Aladdin Paperbacks, 2002
Vergara, Ma Isabel Sánchez. Little People, Big Dreams Jane Goodall. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2018.
lardcupcakes.com 
Awesome job, V. I can tell you worked really really hard on this paper.
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