Teaching Grandchildren to Help and Thank Others

Do Good Deeds; Use Good Social Skills 

 A New Year’s resolution might be to continue teaching children to do good deeds and have good social skills. Children can show gratitude to those who rarely receive a thank you. People who deserve a lot of gratitude are those in the the service industries such as truckers, grocery workers, all in the restaurant businesses including take-outs and bakeries. How often are they working very early in the morning, late at night, or holidays when we are enjoying a rest?

Thanking Restaurant Workers

  We can start with restaurant workers. One family teaches their young children to write thank you and other little notes to people who work in the restaurants they visit. 

Thank Your Waitstaff

The family takes along paper the size of thank you notes and crayons. The activity also keeps the children occupied and helps practice writing skills. While waiting, adults help children ages seven and nine write thank you notes to the server and cook. During a holiday they might write a little note that says “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, thank you, their first names, and add pictures. Then they leave it on their table.

  The family also teaches children to thank servers for their food and to use “please” with a smile when asking for something. When the server comes around to ask how everything is, they say “Thank you. This is really good.”

  The young children help to clean up their area, organize the used dishes, and pick up anything they drop on the floor. The family discusses how hard restaurant and other service people work, especially around any holiday, as part of the children’s economics lessons.

No, Thank you

  Another reader shares this good social skills tip. Since her

Use Your Words - Socially

children were very young, instead of saying “No” to them, she says calmly,” No, thank you.” Now when adults ask her children if they want something and the children don’t want it, they say, “No, thank you.” It’s automatic. “No” and “thank you” are linked. Immediately other adults will raise their eyebrows and say, HOW did you do THAT?” The parent adds when her children are in the middle of a tantrum, “Forget it! There is no link. They aren’t perfect.”

Young children think about themselves, making themselves comfortable, and getting what they want. However, with these easy activities families can teach them to be “good” children and think of others in a very natural and positive way. Doing little acts that show appreciation like writing thank you notes to hard working retailers, grocers, mail carriers, restaurant employees, and others helps children learn that being nice to others has more benefit than being nasty and ill mannered at any age.

  For more ideas see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com, wnmufm.org/ Learning Through the Seasons live and pod casts; Pinterest, and Facebook.

Designing Note Cards

What better way is there to involve young children in writing than by creating their own cards? It provides practice and develops life long social skills that never go out of style. These handy note cards say thank you, get well, or congratulations. 

Materials: plastic table cover, card stock paper or card, FOAM shaving cream, food coloring, cookie sheet, scraper (credit card type edge), spatula, stick, crayons or markers.

What to do:

  Cover the workspace with plastic.  Help children squirt a large mound of FOAM shaving cream on a cookie sheet. Show children how to spread foam with a spatula a little larger than the card.  Help them leave the cream thick as it is being spread. Next children drop a dot or two of food colors at different spots on the foam. Discuss the choice of colors. Teach or let them guess what will appear when they swirl the colors together. While swirling with a stick discuss what is happening. Be careful not to swirl too much as the design will turn gray.

  Children are ready to create a card. Help them place the paper on the foam, coating one side. Remove it carefully. Scrape off excess foam with a scraper. This is the outside of the card.  Children may choose to do the other side of the paper which would be the inside design.

  After an hour, the card is ready for your children to print inside.

Help them print a very short note if they are ready. Absolute correctness isn’t as important as the message. Some adults use dots to print a short note, and children follow the dots. Correct manuscript handwriting guides of upper and lower case letters are available at stores and on-line. Be aware that children’s skills are different from child to child even in the same family. A certain age does not guarantee a certain skill. Sometimes is it best for children to draw a picture or make some scribbles, and then adults print the scribble meaning. Children can also dictate a sentence to an adult. Keep it fun. Friends and relatives will love the thoughtful notes regardless.

How does this help my child?

  By swirling primary colors of red, blue, and yellow your children create secondary colors of purple, orange, green. Adults are also providing practice with letter recognition, sounds, holding a printing tool, quiet discussion, and creating contemporary art.

What else can I do:

Use blue paint tape and tape off shapes.  Remove the tape once the card is dry. Print inside the blank spot. Your child might want to add stamps, stickers, or draw pictures.

Find More Activities: 

For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site www.grandparentsteachtoo.org.

Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest.

Picture: Gray, Ann. background.jpg. December 1, 2006. Pics4Learning. 2 Feb 2014