{"id":1235,"date":"2017-02-03T11:22:31","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T17:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shiningexamples.net\/?p=1235"},"modified":"2017-02-03T11:22:32","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T17:22:32","slug":"tea-party-manners-and-little-mermaid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shiningexamples.net\/?p=1235","title":{"rendered":"Tea Party Manners\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bp2.blogger.com\/_sN7iLYC80sQ\/RtB0CAP0QZI\/AAAAAAAAAAc\/GyntdSy7Oks\/s1600-h\/HPIM3541.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5102705955585671570\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bp2.blogger.com\/_sN7iLYC80sQ\/RtB0CAP0QZI\/AAAAAAAAAAc\/GyntdSy7Oks\/s320\/HPIM3541.jpg?w=840\" style=\"cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;\"><\/a><br \/>\n****We took the twins to The Melting Pot for dinner tonight to refresh some of their manners. &nbsp;I noticed that their best manners were a little rusty, and as we had a gift card ( Thanks, sis!) we decided it was a perfect opportunity to do some re- training. &nbsp;I was reminded of this post as we left. It is a great idea to teach manners BEFORE you need them at a family reunion or wedding or something like that. &nbsp;They don&#8217;t come naturally but if we train our kids ahead of time, we can all go into situations with a lot more confidence.***<\/p>\n<p><span><br \/>\n<\/span><span><br \/>\n<\/span><span><br \/>\n<\/span>Earlier in the spring, Scott (the wonderful man he is), bought tickets for all of us to see the &#8220;Little Mermaid&#8221; musical in a pre-Broadway engagement here in Denver.  Last night we made a night of it and saw the delightful new musical and had dinner at a restaurant in downtown Denver.  We dressed up and headed for a fun family evening.  When we arrived at the restaurant, I mentioned  to the kids that I expected  &#8220;Tea Party Manners&#8221;.  At various times through out the year, I plan a &#8220;tea party&#8221; complete with tea, sandwiches and the ever important scones,  boys too.  These parties have  a dual role, one to have fun and the second to teach manners.  The boys learn how to seat a lady, Caileigh how to be seated, how to place a napkin on our laps, eat with the proper utensil, keep our elbows off the table and to sit up straight in our chairs.  &#8220;Tea Party Manners&#8221; are the extra special manners we need on special occasions.  Then when we go into a situation that requires those manners, I just tell them I expect tea party manners and they know what is required of them.  It&#8217;s so much easier to teach those manners before they are needed at a wedding, Thanksgiving or dining out before a show.  They best thing is that they are confident and secure in what they know and go into those situations with ease.<br \/>\n<span><br \/>\n<\/span><span>Last night was no exception, they behaved like young gentlemen and lady (or a Princess according to Caileigh) and shined like the stars they are.  Speaking as a very proud Mommy, several restaurant guests made a special point of coming over to remark how well mannered and beautiful our children were.  The show was amazing and I loved watching the faces of my enthralled children as they watched the magic unfold on stage.  It was a memory making evening for all.  Oh, and the kids got 5 marbles each in their reward jars for exceptional behavior.  Maybe you should have a tea party soon!     <\/span><br \/>\n<span><br \/>\n<\/span><span><br \/>\n<\/span><span><br \/>\n<\/span><span>Categories: <a href=\"http:\/\/del.icio.us\/shiningexamples\/parenting\" rel=\"tag\">parenting<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>****We took the twins to The Melting Pot for dinner tonight to refresh some of their manners. &nbsp;I noticed that their best manners were a little rusty, and as we had a gift card ( Thanks, sis!) we decided it was a perfect opportunity to do some re- training. &nbsp;I was reminded of this post [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeschooling"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7xcFa-jV","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiningexamples.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiningexamples.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiningexamples.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiningexamples.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiningexamples.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shiningexamples.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1791,"href":"https:\/\/shiningexamples.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions\/1791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiningexamples.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiningexamples.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiningexamples.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}