Practicing good manners is an important cornerstone of being a part of a thoughtful community. Small, daily actions that convey respect and support for everyone’s wellbeing and happiness goes a long way.
Teaching good manners at an early age is essential to helping your child build healthy and happy relationships with family, friends, classmates, and their neighbors. From basic table manners to being a good house guest, you can easily and effectively teach your child the fundamentals of proper etiquette with a bit of role playing and reading books with characters who model respect and graciousness.
Use the help of your child’s favorite characters, like Clifford, silly dinosaurs, Peppa Pig, to demonstrate key manners and good habits to your child (while building crucial reading skills!). Seeing these characters in similar situations will help your child feel validated and less isolated in their learning experience. This will also encourage them to practice good manners and build their confidence.
Here’s a list of ways to practice politenes daily, and the best tips and books to help your child learn how to be more caring and considerate.
1. Say Please, Thank You and Excuse Me
One of the best ways to help your child build their manners at a young age is to begin with the basics. Start modeling good manners by saying please, thank you, and excuse me to your child, other family members, and people you interact with daily.
Practice these phrases at the table, during playtime, and any time in between. Remind your kids of their favorite characters who also use these manners, and how much their own friends will appreciate them.
In Say Please, Little Monster, little readers will learn how saying “please,” “thank you,” and “I’m sorry” promotes a friendly and considerate environment no matter where they go. This playful and funny board book — written with Sandra Magsamen’s signature message of love — is perfect for little readers as they develop their sense of self. The tactile pages are also full of different colors and textures that will appeal to your child’s senses.
Meanwhile, younger kids in Pre-K and up will love Clifford’s Manners, a perfectly relatable story about everyone’s favorite Big Red Dog. Emily Elizabeth taught Clifford good manners — and that includes saying please, thank you, and I’m sorry when he makes mistakes. Kids will adore the eye-catching illustrations and familiar beloved characters.
Don’t forget to include the hilarious Only My Dog Knows I Pick My Nose, Lauren Tarshis’s celebration and ode to being yourself while learning all about how to exhibit polite behavior, with the unconditional love that man’s best friend provides.
2. Table Manners
Another important facet of learning manners is how to behave at the table. Mealtime is a great opportunity to practice table etiquette for kids. In addition to saying please and thank you, other table manners to show your child are how to share food and pass along dishes to others, cover your mouth when coughing, and ask to be excused. By modeling these polite behaviors and explaining why they matter, your child will learn why mealtimes are meaningful for the family, and as a result, sit at the table for longer periods of time.
To help with poor table manners, start with How Do Dinosaurs Show Good Manners?, a hilarious book featuring your child’s favorite silly dinosaurs as they learn how to eat at the dinner table (among many other manners). This title answers important questions like: Should we throw food on the floor while at the table? How should we be polite? Funny rhymes and amusing illustrations will make your child laugh while also helping them understand how their behavior makes for a pleasant mealtime experience for all.
Another helpful read from this series is How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?. Here, our dinosaur pals learn even more detailed table manners, like how to clean up after themselves, show gratitude after a meal, and more.
Use these relatable examples to show your child how to practice good table manners at home, and little by little, outside of the house, too, like at restaurants or at a friend’s house. Through small, daily practices at mealtimes, your child will see these manners as second nature in no time.
3. Playtime and Sharing
Making friends and learning how to play nicely with others is another pivotal part of your child’s social-emotional development. Sharing is a great place to begin teaching children that manners matter when becoming a good friend.
Emphasize kindness and how good it makes others feel when we share things like toys, games, and spaces with others. Practice sharing at home by inviting your child to read a book together or giving them a portion of your snack. Next, ask them to share a favorite toy during playtime, or a turn on the swing at the playground. This will help them see how their actions affect how others feel when playing together.
Introduce your child to Angelo, the angelfish, and his beautiful tank in Fish Tank Friends #1: This Tank Is Mine!. Angelo lives in a large tank full of neat things, like a cozy cave, a treasure chest, and even a bubble man. But when a new fish gets placed into Angelo’s tank one day, he suddenly needs to learn how to share his home with his new friend.
Peppa Pig fans will also love the examples of friendship in Peppa Pig: Learning to Share. When Peppa’s brother George and his friend Richard Rabbit are at the playground together, they usually share their dinosaur toys. But one day, the boys refuse to share and their sisters, Peppa and Rebecca Rabbit, decide to step in and teach the boys how much more fun they have when they share the toys that bring them joy.
Another great choice is How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends?. This hilarious book takes kids through the ins and outs of what it means to play nicely with their friends, including how to have a good attitude when friends come to visit. It also highlights the importance of showing acts of kindness, like sharing their toys.
No matter what manners you teach your child, using their favorite books and your own examples as a role model will help them practice proper etiquette in and outside of your home.
Shop more fun books that help teach kids manners below! You can find all books and activities about manners for kids at The Scholastic Store.
