National Children’s Good Manners Month

September is National Children's Good Manners Month, who knew? Manners Monkey is one of nine Characters of Character which teach our children vital core values, social emotional skills, literacy, fine motor and art. Have we met? Well, it is very nice to meet you now!
Having good manners is a tool that may help you build better relationships with others and will attract like minded individuals who also have good manners.

Howdy Partner, my name is Manners Monkey and I'm here to share with you some tips on having good manners. Ya'll know children don't come with an instruction book on how to teach manners and I hope that Manners Monkey can be of some help!

Tips To Teach Good Manners To Children:

* Be a role model for your child. Believe it or not your child is listening to what you say in conversations you have with others and how you present yourself. Do you use good manners?

* Communicate what it means to have good manners. Don't expect your child to hold open the door for someone, or to help somebody if you don't explain to them the importance of what good manners means.

* Use polite words yourself. When your child hears you using polite words such as please and thank you they will use them, too. Kids love to mimic what adults say, so choose your words wisely!

* Encourage your children! You can make a sticker chart and keep it at eye level so that it is a visual reminder to use good manners. Have a reward system that best fits your home.

As an educator myself, I spent five years on the Reading Team in an Elementary school. The entire process of teaching a child to read is fascinating to me! When that light bulb goes on and a letter turns into a sound, letters turn into words and words in sentences is a fun journey and takes a lot of time to learn and to teach. But, look out! When a child finds a topic that is of interest to them they will read about it, write about it and talk about it! Here's a thought to get them started:

Naturally you start with the alphabet and teach a child the letters and most likely sing the song, music is a great resource to teach so many things.You then move onto teaching them the letters in their name, this is fun! Use visuals, make cards with each letter of their name on it, ask them to put the letters in order to spell their name, say their name and make up a song about their name! Have fun with this! Much like the tips from above to teach good manners to a child, use the same tips to teach them to read. Be a role model, read yourself and let your child see you read, read a book, a recipe, a food label, a card, etc. Communicate! Talk with your children, you need to read a recipe in order to make their favorite dish, or read the ingredients on something before eating it or even read about a topic so you can learn more. Use polite words, always, but also be encouraging so your child doesn't shut down and they want to learn about something, they want to talk about something and they want to write about something. That's where our new Composition Books comes in!

Find something of interest with your child. For example, a colorful, fun cover as shown above. (insert smile) Have crayons or pens and pencils available so your child can doodle, doodles turn into art many times. Your child will take ownership in their new Composition book and draw in it, write in it and keep their thoughts in it. Ask them to write down the people they see using good manners! Or to draw a picture of the people they see using good manners. Once you have discussed what it means to have good manners your child will be on the look out and take notice who is using their manners and beware, who is not!

Manners Monkey is pleased to meet you and hope you introduce this character to your child, students or classroom to encourage using good manners. Characters of Character has nine characters to help teach vital core values to your child and hope you check out our books to spark an interest in your own child to have good character. I held a painting class at a library a few years ago and the parents were in attendance. I talked about what it meant to have good manners and what polite words were. We then painted Manners Monkey on canvas and the children also got to meet Manners Monkey!Do you know that when I got home I had an email from a parent. A very nice email at that! This mom had thanked me for coming to the community and appreciated that we discussed what manners were. Her daughter asked her about polite words in their language, not just in English. A teachable moment for the both of us! Remember that I mentioned to find a topic that your child likes to spark their interest in learning, this is a wonderful example. To take the lesson further, I would print out the words in English and in the language of your choice and build a word wall, a visual of the words and keep encouraging a child to learn, learn more and keep learning!

TELL me and I forget, TEACH me and I remember, INVOLVE me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin

We’ve added NEW wide ruled composition books!

Our composition notebooks are a great way to start a conversation on each one of the character traits! Fun visual, fun to carry around to take notes when on the run, at networking events, to use in a classroom, in your home school community and just to have lay around! There was a time when family life was so busy that we had a composition notebook out on the coffee table and that’s how we communicated with all the different schedules! Your child will feel pretty special carrying around their own Manners Monkey wide ruled composition note book to write in!

Any proceeds from the month of September will go to Shriner’s Children’s Hospital Superhero activity boxes! Our goal is to donate 50 and if you’d like to make a difference in the life of a child, please learn more here. Thank you. Miss Joni and Manners Monkey appreciate you!