Guest Post By Author Jesica Nkouaga
So What Do Nature and Children Have in Common?
They grow! They grow especially when they are nurtured and cared for by someone who loves them.
Nature and children are two things that author Jesica Nkouaga loves. Jesica’s love for nature inspired her to draw pictures of the natural surroundings around her, both at home and abroad during her ESL teaching adventures overseas.
Author Jesica Nkouaga
Although not an artist by training, Jesica took deep comfort in drawing the countryside landscapes that she saw around her, especially while teaching English abroad in Thailand, Jordan, and Honduras. Many of the drawings in this book are a result of over ten years of traveling and drawing. The book also includes drawings of the countryside near the farm where Jesica grew up in Minnesota.
It also includes drawings of hobbies that Jesica and her family members engage in such as riding a unicycle and playing guitar.
After ten years of collecting drawings, Jesica came up with a way to put all of the things she loves together. She put the nature drawings together to create a basic language learning book for children.
As an ESL teacher, language teaching and learning are something that Jesica does daily, so it made sense to create a book about language learning for children.
Why include the French language, you might ask?
French connects with Jesica’s love for learning new languages, and it is one of her lifetime goals to learn French— the native language of her husband who is from Cameroon. By including a French translation in her book, it not only helps her learn and practice French, but it aids others who are learning and practicing French especially children! She is grateful to her husband, Abel, who enthusiastically and patiently helped to translate the book into French.
It is Jesica’s hope that children and parents will be inspired by the colorful and vibrant drawings of nature depicting different settings around the world, and hopefully, some French can be learned along the way. In this book, enjoy learning French and enjoy a walk in nature— une promenade en nature!
Connect with Jesica on her Facebook Page.
