For a while now I’ve been pondering how parents teach their children good manners. How do you first break into the topic of good manners? How do you explain to a toddler what “good manners” means? How do you begin go teach them about the 3 magic words and maybe even what the term “magic words” mean?
Well I found my answer and a shortcut to it all! How did I do it? Here’s the secret learning tool I discovered which works magically well on Ryan:
Yupe, Barney did the job for me! He taught Ryan about good manners, saying things like thank you and you’re welcome, excuse me when he sneezes, sorry, please and even his good mornings and good nights.
We’ve got Ryan a couple of Barney CDs and he’s been repeatedly watching them and some of the episodes talk about having good manners and what manners are all about. He especially loves the good manners song too and has been asking me to sing it. Unfortunately, that’s one song that I’ve not learned from the show so I’m unable to sing it to him.
The learnings and the effect they have on Ryan are simply amazing. Every time Ryan misbehaves or forgets his magic words, all we need to tell him is that Barney says his actions or non-actions are not good manners. It’s funny how much influence Barney has on him, and how ironic that the purple dinasaur that I cannot stand actually helped me teach Ryan good manners!
If you haven’t already tried this out and want to teach your little ones about manners, try this Barney trick on them and see if it works. But one other thing I have to point out is that kids do not learn just by sitting there alone and watching and re-watching the shows.
You need to put in some effort to explain what’s going on in the show and to inject some lessons into it yourself too. They can’t possibly understand the entire show without your help. So whilst Barney and friends take the lead role to help educate our children in some aspects, we stay in the background to make sure he or she is grasping the concepts.
Barney, a helping hand for growing children. That’s the tagline. I’d like to add too that it’s also a great help for parents!
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
What a great suggestion! thanks for sharing.
I personally find the Barney ugly as well.
Can i ask which disc of Barney teaches most of these manners?
Yes I totally agree, Barney influenced. Everytime the finale song comes on ‘I love you, you love me…’ Hayley will run to either me or hubby and ask for a BIG hug.. love that moment
Haha..i think most people our age finds don’t really like the look of Barney. I am actually in a contradictory situation. My little boy is nearly 13 months and I don’t know if I should start letting him watch TV Programmes like Barney, Playhouse Disney etc. Most articles I read advice to only let toddlers after 2 years to start for certain amount a day. At the same time, I am worried that he will lose out on a lot of teachings that these programme offers. Any advice from your experiences?
Sin Yee, my pleasure to share. If we could all help each other out, parenting would be a lot easier and fun for everyone
Let me go home and take a look at the CD title to find out which one it is with all that manners lesson okay?
Amy, hahaha…then I’m sure you especially love to let Hayley watch Barney just for hugs sake! But that song is a great one, it does instill love and care into children. Ryan even wants Barney to hug him and we’re at a lost how he’s going to achieve that!
Col, I think you can start you little boy already. Whilst I don’t agree for children to be addicted to watching TV, I think reasonable amount of time spent watching these programs can be very educational and helpful for them. I would say go for it!
If you’re worried, maybe limit him to some amount of time a day you’re comfortable with.
Yeah I agree with Penny that a little TV time won’t kill. In fact, when my little girl is engrossed in watching TV I get to do some work in the kitchen without worrying too much. Although I don’t like it when she’s glued to the TV for more than an hour a day but sometimes I have no choice so I just make sure she only watches the educational stuff like Barney or PHDC.
Penny, my little one can imitate Darby from Pooh and Friends and will use her fore finger to poke her head and say ‘think think think’ hehehe so cute la..:-)
Thanks for the advice. I was actually thinking of starting to let him watch but limiting his time but my actual concern is the maid might just let him watch without time limit so she can have her free time.
How nice if we are all work from home mom, eh? *wink wink
I’m really anti-Barney, but I’m willing to do a 180 degree turn if Barney can help!
Time to check out those Barney CDs at the library.
Aww…so sweet and cute! That Darby girl is pretty cute and very appealing to kids too, don’t you think so Amy?
Col, now I understand your concern about letting your boy watch the programs. But sooner or later it might just happen. Any way to do spot checks?
Adino, try it once and see what happens…you may flip 360 degrees! Hahaha.
aha…someone’s mummy has fallen in love with barney, the purple dinosaur
Shhh…not so loud!
Penny, Darby is indeed very pretty and cute
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Col, I bet my babysitter would let her watch TV too at her place so she could have her free time and this is something that I can’t control or do spot checks on. So I think I will stop worrying too much (and stress myself out) and let things takes its course.
I know Ryan watches a lot of Barney and other shows at the babysitter’s place, but I guess I don’t really mind. It’s amazing how much he’s learned from it too. There are pros and cons, so maybe you can buy more educational programs so even if the worst happens, they’re learning!
Sin Yee, you asked earlier about which episode of the Barney shows teaches all these good manners. The name on the CD cover says “Sharing is caring”. But I believe sometimes some of these episodes are repeating in other titles so you might want to scan through. It’s about the one where they donate toys for a toy drive.