PAWS for Friendship
Canyon Lake, TX – Award-winning author, Kathleen J. Shields, releases her latest Hamilton Troll book with the objective of stopping bullies, before they start. In collaboration with local elementary school teachers, Shields’ has created the Troll Patrol with the goal of promoting “PAWS for Friendship”.
The mission of “PAWS for Friendship” – which stands for Pause, Approach, Welcome & Smile – is to teach young children social skills; how to make friends, and teach the ‘mean kids’ how to be friendly.
“Bullies tend to focus on loners, children without friends. My aim is to teach children how to make friends, so there will be fewer children available for the bully. But the plan is two-fold. The potential bully, the ‘mean’ kid, needs to learn there is no fun in being mean, that it is more fun to play with others. If you teach children how to make friends, how to talk to each other; true social skills, they can band together, be stronger in numbers and feel better about themselves. It also encourages the ‘mean’ kid to join in, thus teaching him or her how to be nice and the many rewards of friendship.”
In the book “Hamilton Troll meets Rudy Rat” you hear about the mean things Rudy does. The children are all upset about this and they go to Hamilton for help. He quickly discovers that Rudy is alone and scared and doesn’t know how to make friends. When Hamilton encourages the children to stand together for friendship, to Welcome Rudy to join their games and to Smile at him, Rudy begins to feel accepted. He is able to hang out with the other kids and have fun, making friends rather than enemies. Rudy Rat will then learn to grow up having friends, being social and not become a bully.
“While I respect every organization out there working hard to promote the education of bullying and initiating campaigns to stop it, I believe the education needs to be taken a step further and started sooner. I feel a great need for social skills to be taught and at an early age.”
Hamilton Troll’s Troll Patrol has only just begun. The goals set forth are lofty, just like the goals and expectations we have for our children. Let’s all learn together how to make friends so we won’t be alone any more.
Learn more at www.HamiltonTroll.com/TrollPatrol