How to teach your daughter manners

We're currently in the midst of my daughter's 'Terrible Twos' phase. When she was younger, she went to Gymboree Play and Learn classes and we used to feel bad when she would get pushed or picked on. But now, she gives as good as she gets, sometimes a bit more. She would throw things, have tantrums, even take a swipe at her baby sister's head. Her dad is very good at disciplining her (i.e. raised voice, glaring eyes and the ultimatum, enforcing 'face the wall' punishments) but beyond punishing her for every mistake she did, we want her to learn how to behave well.

Just in time, I discovered this book series that teaches good manners and is written by popular children's author Karen Katz. We already own two of Karen Katz's lift-the-flap books,  'Where is Baby's Belly Button?' and 'Where is Baby's Christmas Present?', and my daughter loved those so I was sure she would love this series as well.

  

We got five books from the series, namely 'No Biting', 'I Can Share', 'Best Ever Big Sister', 'No Hitting' and 'Excuse Me'. I don't know if there are more books in the series but these five cover the basics of good manners. We started reading these to our daughter a few weeks ago and now we read the set twice a day, once before dinner and another before bedtime.

I love the easy-to-understand wording, the realistic examples used, the colorful illustrations and the lift-the-flap format which makes it more interactive for kids. It's especially rewarding to hear her use words she learned from these books. She still has a long way to go in terms of good manners but with the magic words she's learned so far, like 'sorry', 'tkoo' (thank you), 'peas' (please) and 'labu' (I love you), I know she'll get there in time.