Manners4Minors is a programme that helps children and young teenagers learn proper social behaviour and good manners. It was started in 2007 by Dayleen Taylor, a British teacher and headmistress of an English private school. The program is now found in more than 50 centres throughout the world. The American Academy Larnaca Institute will be running two separate programmes, one in English and another one in Greek. Lessons are one hour each and take place once per week.
Students will be split into two distinct groups depending on which grade they attend in school: Grades 1-2-3 or Grade 4 and above.
There two levels outlined below.
Manners4Minors 1:
Mr & Ms Awesome: September – January (5 months)
Mr & Ms Wonderful: February – June (5 months)
Manners4Minors 2:
Mr & Ms Amazing: September – January (5 months)
Mr & Ms Inspiring: February – June (5 months)
Students may also start in the middle of the academic year, which means that they will complete the second half (February – June) and then complete the first half during the next academic year.
For more information, call 24746359 / 99928763
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.
Throughout the duration of the programme, children learn to develop
• kindness
• respect
• self-esteem
• compassion
• empathy
• consciousness
Furthermore, they learn to think before they act and make smart and mature choices, taking into consideration the people who are around them in order that they are pleased with them. Moreover, all the benefits remain with the participants as they grow up to become mature adults.
