Teach Children Manners

I saw this cute book on Meal Makeover Moms -
Wiggens Learns His Manners at the Four Seasons Restaurant.  What a cute way to teach children about table manners!

We are not quite there yet in our home as Baby A is only 11 months, though we are starting by encouraging her not to throw her sippy cup/food/etc etc etc.  She went through a short phase of laughing and spitting out her food which was a bit un-nerving, but thankfully she has stopped that.  She also used to SCREAM when she wanted more, but she now instead (almost always) signs for more.

We go back and forth on how to teach A to have good manners at this stage beyond the typical "no" (we of course tell her no!)...so I generally dip into my special ed strategies at times like these---I find that my behavior strategies are appropriate for children of all abilities!

1. Stay calm.
2. Speak in a steady, low tone.
3. When all else fails, remove her/the object.


ie: "Abes, please stop throwing your food. Are you all done?" (sign for all done)
Usually at this point, she'll keep doing it or slap her tray, which I take to mean all done.
"Okay, all done." (remove tray/sippy/food/whatever)



What stage of teaching manners are you in?  Any tips to share with our readers?