Note to parent or teacher: Here’s a 20-minute lesson plan on the importance of good manners.

Read “King Freddy.”

Ask your children what bad manners may look like in your household. Brainstorm with your children polite actions and words they should use daily. You can paraphrase this article covering ten basic manners to teach children.

Read “You Can Show Good Manners.”

Discuss how being polite and using good manners is an important way to show consideration and respect toward others. Discuss what it would look like and how we’d feel if everyone behaved with bad manners.

Watch song “Manners.”

Read the story “Please” by Alicia Aspinwall, on the importance of saying please and thank you. (Click on the link and scroll down past the first article and poem to find the story.)

Learn the following poem:

Good manners may in seven words be found,

Forget yourself, and think of those around.

Do the activity, “Good Manners Flower.”

Optional activity: Watch “Crawford’s Good Table Manners,” then have a manners tea party with your child. Prepare some kid-friendly refreshments, and demonstrate to your child how to set a table nicely and use polite mealtime words (e.g., “please,” “thank you,” “may I be excused,” “please pass the…,” etc.) as you eat your snack.

Additional material:

• Read “Bright Pebbles: God in Us.”
• Watch "Character Builders: Politeness."
• Read the story “Simple Courtesy.”