The forests of the world are a critical element in the race to save our environment.

When teaching our children how to be responsible for their actions and to preserve their environment, the forest can be a valuable teaching tool. Children relate to what they can see, touch and feel. Even if you do not live near a forest, your child can see, touch and feel a tree.

Most children are also fascinated by wildlife. And one of the best places to find wildlife is in the trees.

Parents must believe in the power of their children to take action and help protect and preserve the environment, particularly wildlife. Our forests are quickly being depleted. In order to preserve our natural resources for future generations, we must show them early on how they can help and why they should.

More people are taking an interest in preservation. To carry on this attitude and concern, we must involve our children early on. One way to do this is through nature walks and discussions about what we do with trees and the effects of our actions.

Another way to help children relate is through books. Jimmy the Squirrel contains information about the crisis facing wildlife and what kids can do about it. It can also be a useful tool for parents to identify the problems and solutions regarding preservation in a way that speaks to children.

Jimmy, an illustrated character, not only lives in the forest; he has great ideas about protecting the planet. This book was created in part to inform young people about the problems we are facing and give them the tools to create their own solutions.

Each of us has the same right to pursue happiness and avoid suffering. Without the environment and resources we enjoy today, that right is significantly affected.

Continuing education at home is an important part of your child’s development.

Use your imagination! Read. Take a trip to the zoo to see the animals your child is learning about in school. Teach your child how to classify items, for example, their toys or their priorities.

The responsibility to educate shouldn’t lie only within teachers and schools. Children’s life at home should supplement the classroom.

For example, by reading Jimmy the Squirrel, you can help teach your child to understand that living things have many different needs. From there you may continue by teaching that squirrels needs trees to live in , birds need twigs to build nests, fish needs water to survive, a pet hamster needs a clean cage, and plants need sunlight to make food.

All around us, living things are using their environment to fill these needs.

Reading to your child and then taking them by the hand and showing them the environment and the effects of our actions on living things will work in the interest of the next generation.

It will also definitely affect their educational goals, ability to meet those goals, and overall performance.

This is a great parenting publication that featured my blog last week.

Courage is not the absence of fear; it is acting in spite of it.

Courage means facing physical dangers, but it also can mean standing up for beliefs and making hard decisions on the basis of evidence rather than on what is the easy or popular thing to do. 

Courage is going forward, despite the odds, despite your fears, despite the voices

around you telling you something is impossible or hopeless.

Jimmy the Squirrel will help your kids bring enthusiasm and energy to their duties. It can teach them to focus on the positive and don’t get discouraged by mistakes, or trading perfectionism for personal growth.

Jimmy had true courage that comes from overcoming obstacles without placing blame on others for failure. He uses his moral code more than lip service.

Use Jimmy the Squirrel to develop courage in your child. If he says he cannot do it, guide him and make him do it. If he is able to accomplish something that he thought he cannot do, give him the reward that he deserves. You could either give him something to appreciate his effort or just tell him that he is very good. Children need to be praised and encouraged. That will contribute a lot in developing courage in them.

Jimmy as character will stay in the mind of your child helping him to learn how to be brave.

Share your experiences. Knowledge of what was happening to you can help your children to endure as well.

Writing Jimmy the Squirrel was a result of reading a bedtime story to my daughter. Sitting with my daughter to read a book is like having a quiet space away from daily business and personal issues. Even with 15 minutes, I am getting myself back on track and making a crucial investment in my daughter’s success. 

The growing complexity of our modern world has made the ability to read more essential than ever before. As with most other skills, reading is more easily mastered by those who enjoy it. We can cultivate this passion in our young ones early by reading aloud to them. 

Just like physical exercise, there are cumulative benefits when you do something regularly: Many studies show that children who have been read to several times a day as a young child did substantially better in kindergarten than youngsters whose parents read to them a few times a week or less often.

Parents should be consistent in support of reading.  If you want your child to be kind, you have to model kindness every day.  Good nutrition starts with the same approach. Helping your child to develop these life-critical skills via the conversations, rich vocabulary and characters in Jimmy the squirrel helps children grow their understanding of the world beyond their thinking.

Reading aloud can lead to active thinking in children more quickly than any other single activity. And children grow to know they will be held responsible for conversations that relate to the story.  This leads to greater self-esteem and success, even in the most reluctant readers

*Check out the carnival of reading and book play!

Forests, simply an area with a high density of trees, have held great importance to mankind ever since prehistoric days. Forests provide multiple benefits to the environment, people, and animals:

Forests provide different kinds of wood, which are used for different purposes, including manufacturing furniture, paper and pencils.

Deforestation has many negative effects on the environment. Seventy percent of Earth’s land animals and plants, which live in forests, cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes.

Jimmy the Squirrel helps kids understand the effect destroying forests has on animals.

Deforestation also drives climate change because without the protection from sun, the trees will quickly dry. Trees also help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor back into the atmosphere.

Jimmy the squirrel is keen to protect the forest trees, and protect the homes of his friends and all the animals in the forest.

Today’s post is written by Sharon Williams (with help from her Amazon parrot, Jasper).

Children’s books are a great tool.  In them, authors can create amazing and creative characters that leap off the pages. 

With characters a child can warm up to, lessons can be learned.  A child can learn about family values all the way to stay away from strangers. 

Every child at one point in their lives has had a stuffed animal in their room, or one they hold onto everywhere they go. It is their security blanket. They can talk to it, tell it their secrets and it keeps them company. Most importantly it can keep them safe from the monsters under the bed or in the closet at night.

So when a child sees a character that is similar to their stuffed animals, they gravitate to it.

It represents what their stuffed animals mean to them.  They can relate on this level and that is why characters that are animals work so well.  A writer can get on their level, their playing field and help share some lessons that a child can use.

When shared with a parent so much more comes into view.  One benefit is the time spent between parent and their child.  Another are the lessons learned and possible discussions that can come from that. 

Hopefully one more benefit emerges, a love of reading – a joy that is parallel to none. That alone is worth taking the time to get a book together and read it with your children. 

The adventures they can come across, the places they can visit in their mind and the ability to open up their creativity in ways only a book can do is simply priceless.

This is what I tried to do with my own children’s book, Jasper, Amazon Parrot: A Rainforest Adventure, which is at the editing stage.  In it, Jasper, an Amazon parrot, is very similar to Jimmy of Jimmy the Squirrel.  They are both likable characters who share lessons with children in a way that reaches the minds of young kids.

You can follow Sharon online, too:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/NewEngland_Muse

Blog: http://newenglandmuse.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sharon-Williams/195232693863109

As a father, I found Jimmy the Squirrel a story that gives my kids the opportunity to learn more about their behaviors, particularly about helping each other and having teamwork spirit.

Jimmy as a character gives my kids simple ideas and helps them to transfer it to meaningful ones that would result in positive thinking.

The most important result that you will get by reading Jimmy the Squirrel for your kid and getting him/her more related to the character Jimmy is that undesired habits will be changed and your kid will become more creative and masterful.

Jimmy the Squirrel encourages children to have a team building experience via elementary reading books. Jimmy the Squirrel Includes themes about cooperative learning and cooperative problem solving.

With Jimmy, children can share something about their lives with their classmates, friends and relatives. Children can use their artistic skills and learn about each other by creating scenes that say something important about themselves.

With our busy days and focus on business and long working hours, we are always trying to find time to spend with our children. Bedtime stories are a great way. They foster parent-child bonds and prepare children for sleep.

As a parent, you’re actually boosting your child’s brain development when you interact while reading a value-based story like Jimmy the Squirrel. Kids can learn a great deal from the verbal interaction with their parents, even more than we ever thought. And this will improve their logic skills and their analytical skills as well.

Another benefit of having this verbal interaction is that the parents can change their voice tone while reading and this will release the child’s stress, enabling the child to sleep

Keeping this habit between the family members will rewire children’s brains, quickening their mastery of language. And you can actually see the difference between those kids who have been regularly read to and kids who have not.