Mile High Manners – Teaching Kids to be Courteous

It is the courteous week here at Meaningful Mama. I hope you are aware of my character development series, and if you aren’t please take time to poke around under the character development tab. I consider this series as the heart of my blog and of huge importance in raising children to be contributing members of our society. I also hope this series helps in having my kids develop a love for the Bible and God’s ways and character. Part of teaching kids better manners is to find creative ways to help it all become habit. Being courteous involves using words like please, thank you and excuse me. It also involves greeting people in a polite way, not interrupting, using the phone in a polite manner, and learning the proper way to interact with others. All of these social interactions are ways to show respect to others. I love creating ways to do positive rewards with my kids. In my “Confessions of a Meaningful Mama” post I openly admitted that there are things I try and implement and then have a hard time with my follow through. Although there are definite things like that I’ve had in my arsenal, I can say that I have been following through on our helpfulness jar, and it seems to be going really well. This is actually a similar concept but with a focus on manners.

I made a simple printable for you with the phrase “Mile High Manners.” I put 3 pieces of tape up the wall from the bottom of the wall all the way up to the top. I taped the “Mile High Manners” sign on the top. I then wrote the kids’ names on the different strips of tape. The concept is that when I see my kids doing something courteous, I will put a sticker on the bottom of their tape. They cannot ask for a sticker. They cannot make it obvious by doing a number of courteous terms in a row just because they want to earn stickers. It has to fit naturally into the conversation or interaction with others. When I see courteous behavior that fits these guidelines then a sticker is earned. The stickers keeps building up the piece of tape. When it hits their name then they earn a special date with either me or their dad. It’s that simple.