Toddler Theme: Manners

This week was all about manners.  Not that we don't talk about manners allllllll the time, it's just that this week was an extra concentrated dose of etiquette.  Teaching my children manners is very important to me.  Sure, I love that Mia's proficient use of please & thank you in public makes me look good, but that's not why manners matter.  It's critical that I arm my girls with the know-how and ability to navigate life's tricky social situations.  Whether they find themselves defusing a tense playground situation or taking a new client to lunch, they should be confident.  But most important of all is the underlying sense of personal & social awareness that good manners imply.  To say thank you means you feel gratitude.  To look someone in the eye and say hello means you acknowledge others.  To hold the door for someone means you feel compassion for others.  Gratitude, humility, compassion...those are the building blocks of genuine happiness.  I can't make my kids happy all the time, but I can guide them down the road to lifelong happiness.  And it starts with a simple "please."

It goes without saying that I should model any behavior I expect from my kids.  And with manners, this is especially powerful.  You want to know how my parents taught (and drilled) basic greetings and conversational manners?  They signed themselves up as greeters at our church.  Every week, we arrived at church a few minutes early so they could open the door & welcome the families.  There was nothing else for us to do, so my siblings and I joined in.  As very young children, we just helped Mom hold the door and accepted praise and hair rufflings from the passersby.  With age and practice, we began locking eyes and offering our own greetings.  Maybe even a cool handshake like Dad.  Mia and I completed this same exercise in our high-rise this week.  We went down to the lobby one evening and held the door for our neighbors returning from work.  Naturally, we received a lot of attention so Mia was able to get in a lot of conversational practice.  Plus, the praise from others made her feel good and positively reinforced her behavior.  We did have a few neighbors who just rushed by without so much as a "hi" or even eye contact.  She was disappointed but it was an opportunity to show her how to respond and to teach her how important it is to acknowledge others.  It doesn't feel good to be ignored.    

Role-playing and pretend play are great ways to model & practice manners.  We dug out the play phones and role-played phone conversations.  This is an especially good way to practice if your little one freezes up during actual phone conversations.  Another afternoon, we threw a teddy bear tea party.  I was so surprised by how much Mia got into this one.  "This is a lovely tea party," she told her bear.  "And one for you," she said as she handed out the cookies (two for herself, of course).

This week, I also started teaching Mia how to set the table for meals.  I was originally planning on making a trip to IKEA to pick up a set of the KLISTRIG place mats, but we didn't make it.  They are really inexpensive ($3 for 4) and they illustrate an informal place-setting.  Instead I improvised and we made our own place-setting place mat with a piece of white card stock, glue, and this Martha Stewart printable.  With this, setting the table becomes a matching game.  And while we had the glue out, we did one more art project -- artwork thank you cards.  I've been saving a stack of Mia's more colorful doodles & artwork for just this project.  I cut her art into 2" squares and she glued those down on white paper.  I then cut those out again, leaving a thin border of the white paper.  She applied more glue and we pressed onto blank note cards.  Viola...kid art thank you cards!  If your child is a little younger or more into drawing, you could have them color this simple "thanks" card (get the 4x6 printable here).  KISS Tip: Keep a pre-printed stack of these handy for pre-dinner coloring and then you'll always have a thank you card when you need it...and maybe a few minutes of peace as you prepare dinner.  Or not.

A summary of all Manners week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Role-played phone conversations with toy phones, Practiced informal greetings by holding the door for others, Hosted a teddy bear tea party to practice table manners, Played the game "Mother, May I"

ART PROJECTS: Learned how to set the table by making a place-setting place mat (find the printable & instructions here), Re-purposed kid artwork into thank you cards (or you could print these simple "thanks" cards on 4x6 note cards)

BOOKS: Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony, Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio, What Do You Say, Dear? by Sesyle Joslin, Advice to Little Girls by Mark Twain, How to Behave and Why by Munro Leaf 

BIBLE STORY: Job's patience

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).