Based on the notion of acceptance, Manners4Minors urges children to be receptive of the importance of proper social behaviour and good manners, creating children that others would want to be with, to play with and in general to be around them.
For children in Grades 1-3, the instructor uses four puppets and role playing to demonstrate what is proper and acceptable social behaviour and good manners. Two of the puppet characters behave properly and two of the characters behave rudely.
The lesson itself is very interactive and experiential. Every lesson focuses on one concept.
There are over 80 lesson topics. Below is just an indicative sample of topics covered:
• Caring and sharing
• Interrupting
• Mistakes and patience
• Family
• Feelings management
• Wining and nagging
• Friends
• Sportsmanship
• Behaviour towards grandparents
• Greetings and visitors
• Restaurant behaviour
• Playing rough
• Brotherly competition
• Apologies
• We cannot afford it
• Obedience
• Anger
• Party behaviour
• Disagreement
• Jealousy
• Critiquing others
• Patience
• Bossiness
The lesson includes:
• Explanation of the concept through discussion
• Reinforcement of understanding though the use of the 4 characters / puppets
• Role playing
• Group exercises
• Personal exercises
The students towards the end of the lesson do their homework, which in essence becomes classwork, thus they don’t have to do anything at home.
For older children, the instructor makes use of the four characters without the use of puppets and there is an experiential representation of their behaviours and manners from the students themselves.
Through training, students comprehend the various concepts and are then in a position to make the right choice of behaviour that has the expected results, so that they experience the various benefits.
