What-Why-How Manners

By AWL

“Be manners”, “Say Thank you”, “Say goodbye”, “Say please”…. I bet that you been heard phase like this as we grew up as well as you might saying these to your children. We thought we are being taught of manners and we are teaching the children on manners. In fact, this is not an ideal way to teach young children about manners. Besides, manners are more than about “please”, “thank you”, and “goodbye”. There are still a lot of manners aspects we can teach the children in their daily routine. Manners is not about keep getting the child to “pronouns” the words “please”, “thank you”, and “goodbye”. Let the children know the meaning behind of having the manners will make them understand our expectation about manners. At the same time, we need to provide a concrete ideas or instruction to them on what manners is.

Here, I will give you what is the TOP 10 specific manners that children need to know. Why these matters? How to teach manners effectively?

Top 10 most important manners and Why it matters

1. Say please : Show consideration to others

2. Say thank you and welcome : Show appreciation and gratitude

3. Apologize : Show empathy and that you are taking responsibility for your actions

4. Smile : Make everything better for yourself and others

5. Talk softly and gentle : Important social skill

6. Share : Make friends and play cooperatively

7. Saying excuse me : Show consideration to others

8. Eye contact : First impression makes big impact

9. Listen : Show respect to others

10. Say nice words : No one like bad words

5 Ways to reinforce the manners

1. Read a book about manners

2. Parents, families member and educators need to be a good role models on manners as children always see what you do

3. Come up with a fun phase or sound that all family members can use it as remind each others when manners are forgotten eg: “Oops, you forgot something”

4. Talk to the child before going to school, dining, shopping or playground. Give them a quick reminder about what’s the expectation of manners during the event.

5. Praise the children who practice the manners well

Yes, having good manners will benefit you and children in most aspects of life. However, the best reason to use proper etiquette is because it's the right thing to do. While no one is perfect, imagine a culture where good manners just don’t exist – not a pleasant thought!

“A man never loses anything by politeness.” – Henry Venn