Zoology with Team Beautiful

Team Beautiful's science studies begin this year with the life sciences, more specifically zoology. I thought introducing the girls to the Animal Planet show Meerkat Manor would be a great way to take a closer look at one of the girls' favorite zoo animals.

The girls became engrossed in the Whisker Family's everyday life, and we quickly moved through seasons 1 and 2 (which involved roughly 15+/- pregnancies by the matriarch Flower). Season 3 has been a much darker season, fraught with death.

This has led to not only studying the Meerkat pups' behavior but also 2 little Team Beautiful pups' behavior. (I would announce "spoiler alert" but we are about a year behind, Season 4 is currently showing on cable). In the latest episode, Flower bravely fought a poisonous snake and was killed. These are both girls' responses to the death of the lead meerkat:

Kelly-(no real words, just weeping and other sad sounds).

Tatum- "Oh, I wonder who will be the dominant female now?"

For additional information, you may find Flower's obituary at http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/meerkat/flower/obituary.html.

For a great article re: people's responses to the death of the "Kalahari Desert Rose", see http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/arts/television/10bell.html.

PS: If you see us out and about and Tatum is rubbing her chin on an object, have no fear. It is not another stimming behavior-she just thinks it's funny to "scent mark" things like a meerkat now (Thank goodness she's chosen the more milder form of meerkat scent marking).

Team Beautiful University

School began for the girls and I about a month ago. We have meandered our way through the first few weeks figuring out how long does it take to do a math lesson?, etc. (Answer: about an 15-20 minutes for a quick lesson with some examples and 15-30 minutes for the girls to complete the remaining problems).

The girls are learning that with no school bell to beat and no outpatients waiting for me at LeBonheur we have all the time in the world for them to brush their own hair, put things away, and make their beds before their real day begins.

All in all, we are loving it. Bumps along the way as expected, but Kelly is progressing with her writing as she learns to forget about spelling and *write* (Have no fear, we are also working on her spelling, just in other ways). Tatum's anxiety is melting away, and she is doing some pretty good work. She has decided she would like to write in cursive, so I am teaching her--it's actually much better than her printing.

Her are a few pictures from our first weeks!!!

Phew...

Okay, so there's a little taste of the last half of 2007 and the beginning of 2008...Still more to come (Christmas, Tatum's birthday, New Years Eve, Valentine's Day and many others).