Minding their manners at The Learning House

By Janice M. Howard / Style Editor for the Southern Standard

Allie Thomas and Tyler Prater enjoy their table for two during Manners Day at The Learning House.

Whether its dinner at a friend’s house or an adult business meeting over lunch, we tend to judge people based on their table manners. Are your children barbarians or well mannered ladies and gentlemen when it comes to social graces at the dinner table?

Teaching manners to youngsters may seem like an uphill battle, but 2- to 4-year-old students at The Learning House spent a month learning how to become more graceful, elegant and self-confident.

“Our teachers stressed the importance of telephone etiquette, when to say please and thank you, holding the door for others and how to apologize politely,” noted Maureen Gallagher, preschool director.

Focusing on table manners, they learned about place settings, to wait for the hostess to begin eating, how to politely pass food containers round the table, not to talk with food in their mouths and waiting for others to finish before asking to be excused.

On Manners Day, the children arrived dressed for a special occasion. The tables were decorated with vases of fresh buttercups, as well as buckets of child-sized hand print tulips and other colorful paper flowers that had been made by the classes. At each place was a paper mat to indicate the correct position of the plate, drinking cup, fork, knife and spoon. On the reverse side was the blessing said before refreshments were served and a list of table manners they had learned.

They feasted on mixed fruit, vegetables and dip, finger sandwiches, tea cakes and crackers served with party punch, lemonade and apple juice.

Teachers for the four classes include Holly Sizemore, Tammy Snodgrass, Jean Marsh and Tina Smith.