Activities to Teach Children Manners

Adults know that good manners are important, but children rarely realize why that is so. For most young children, introducing the idea of manners as rules that people should follow works well, but you'll need to hold their interest for long enough to teach them the manners that they'll need to know. You can use several activities to help them learn about manners and etiquette.

  1. Make Your Own Manners Book

    • You can make your own manners book--featuring your child-- to teach your child the concept of good manners. To do this, create the pages of the book by punching holes along one side of several pieces of construction paper and binding them with small pieces of yarn. Then have your child act out various situations involving manners, and take pictures of her doing so. For example, you might take a picture of her chewing her food with her mouth closed, writing a thank-you note or helping you carry grocery bags into your home.

    Playing with Puppets

    • Puppets (and dolls, if you don't own any puppets) are great ways to teach children about manners. You can portray one puppet as very polite and one puppet as very impolite. For example, you might have one puppet grab food from the second puppet, while the second puppet says, "That's not very nice. This is how you're supposed to act when you want something that I have: 'Can I please have some?'" Make the second puppet "teach" good manners to the first puppet while your child watches. In fact, the polite puppet can bring your child into the act by asking him to please explain to the first puppet what good manners would be in each situation.

    Role Play Scenarios

    • Older children, especially those with social delays, may benefit from role play sessions in which they figure out how to act with proper manners in various situations. For example, you might give the child a situation in which someone has cut in line in front of him at a playground, and ask him to act out what a polite response would be. Alternatively, you might ask the child to act out what an unmannerly person would look like at the dinner table, and then what a well-mannered person would look like. Discuss each scenario to make sure that the child understands what makes a certain reaction good or bad manners.

    Let's Have a Tea Party

    • A tea party is another way to teach kids manners, especially basic table manners. Explain to your child that at a tea party, everyone is on her best behavior. Set the table with fancy plasticware and wear your fancy clothes to the party. Then encourage your child to use all of the proper table manners as you sip tea and eat fancy finger sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly, or whatever your child will eat).

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