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We are in Georgia visiting my parents! Also it’s in the 40’s and my hair is as flat as a pancake!
I am basically in heaven.
My mom and I ran out to the grocery store last night for some last-minute Thanksgiving items. While we were there, I couldn’t help but notice how all of the employees of this very-Southern establishment addressed me with, “Yes, ma’am,” and, “No, ma’am,” and they looked me in the eyes and there was politeness all over the place.
It got me to thinking how my South Florida boys sometimes need 14 reminders to say please and thank you and that is just not okay with me.
So when Jimmy Patterson Books asked me to review a new book by James Patterson and Bill O’Reilly titled Give Please A Chance, I knew my boys had to read it!
Each page in this amazing book features different scenes and situations where kids say please – from finding an adorable stray dog to needing a hug to finding a friend for a seesaw ride. Give Please a Chance helps children see the power in this very magic word!
With two beloved authors and 17 different illustrators, your kids will find Give Please a Chance delightfully inspiring in the politeness direction!
With the holidays being here, I know that there will be lots of opportunities for my boys to practice their manners. Meeting new faces at Christmas parties, responding courteously to family members, and <<here’s a biggie for my picky eaters>> politely receiving or declining holiday meal offerings.
After we read Give Please a Chance, I thought it would be fun for us to play a game to help us put our new understanding of the word please to work AND help us get ready for our Thanksgiving feast at Mom-Mom’s!
Here’s how to play the Thanksgiving/Holiday Meal Manners Game…
First, print out the FREE Printable Holiday Meal Food Cards at the bottom of this post.
Cut the cards out and tape or glue them to some paper plates.
Next have everyone in the family gather to play!
Pass a plate with a food on it to someone and say, “Would you like some ((turkey))?”
Then that person must say either, “Yes, please,” or “No, thank you.”
After that person responds, they take the plate and pass it to the next person and say, “Would YOU like some ((turkey))?”
That person must answer by saying, “Yes, please,” or “No, thank you.”
And so on!
It’s that simple! Repetition and practice is the name of the game here!
If Mr. B. is involved, then things might get a little silly because he will eat basically anything you put in front of him.
Mr. B. loved our hypothetical Thanksgiving table.
And I appreciated his enthusiasm for the vegetables. #rolemodeling
But he tried to steal Jethro’s plate and he drank straight out of the gravy boat.
Which actually isn’t very good manners. 🙂
By the end of our game, Mr. B. was pretty stuffed from saying “Yes, please” to everything.
I bet you that Mr. B. will look just like he does in the photo above come 8 pm Thanksgiving night.
🙂
We had a lot of fun practicing our manners! We’ll see how my boys do at the real feast tomorrow!
Would you like to play this game?
Click HERE for your FREE Printable Thanksgiving Food Manners Game Cards!
Also, would you like a copy of James Patterson and Bill O’Reilly’s new book Give Please a Chance???
Thanks to Jimmy Patterson Books, I am giving away ONE (1) copy of Give Please a Chance AND ONE (1) $50 Visa gift card to build your library of manners books!
How to enter???
Leave a comment below telling us why you want to win or share a fun manners story about your kids!
This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only (apologies to my sweet international readers). The giveaway will end at 12:00 am on Wednesday, November 30 (EST). A winner will be selected shortly after and notified by e-mail. If winner does not respond within 24 hours, a second winner will be chosen. Prizes provided by Jimmy Patterson Books. Thank you for entering!
I am a HUGE fan of reading (you can see more of our favorite books HERE) and I love helping families celebrate books in their homes. I can’t wait to see who wins!
Joyfully,
Julie 🙂
I’d love to win this book! I was born and raised up north so the “yes ma’am”, “no ma’am” (or sir) doesn’t come naturally for me. Now that I’m
Raising my own children here in Georgia, I am trying to instill some Southern Hospitality in them! This book sounds like a perfect way to reiterate what I’m working on at home (in public, etc.). Thanks for a chance to win!
I love your activity! Working as an SLP in an elementary school, much of the time it is assumed that our students know how to respond when an undesirable item is placed in front of them. This is not always the case! Often, a child needs those scripts to practice over and over. I am excited to here about this new book. It sounds perfect for the elementary crowd!
We are working on please and thank you with our two year old, so this would be a great book to win for us!
100% every 👶 child needs to know how and when to use manners
My girl loves books! She’s two, so manners are a must!
I love the manners game and book! I lead a parent/toddler group at our church; we ‘practice” behaviors such as being happy for one another, being kind, sharing. This will be a wonderful tool to share with parents on how to practice manners. With Advent approaching, this will be another fun way to prepare for the holidays (and hopefully help parents be less stressed about their child’s behavior). Thank you for sharing your gifts! It’s amazing to think of how many lives are touched & influenced by what you share!
Hello Jane! Just a note to say that you won the giveaway! Email me ASAP with your address and we will get your prize shipped out right away! 🙂
I work with junior high SPED students that need this social skill lesson.
Our daughter is almost old old enough to start working on this. This book would be a great visual resource!
What a brilliant idea, Julie! My little ones do so much better when I clearly define expectations in advance and give them an opportunity to practice good behavior. Your manners game does exactly that! The book looks great, too, and I’d love to win a copy.
I have six children at the table and I do tire of all the reminders- I thought it would have stuck more by now!! Maybe this fun book and game will help…
Learning manners now and being respectful are excellent skills for kids to learn.
We’ve been working on this with our daughter, it would be easier if she could see when she say “Please” & “Thank you” (which is everyday). We may even have to try the game. 😉
My youngest was a late talker but when he began, at almost 2yr, he was saying please and thank you to EVERYTHING – including at his annual appt when the nurse asked if she could draw blood from his big toe. “Yes, please” and “Thank you” when she finished! Not a tear shed. I wish I could say that level of manners (and fearlessness) has continued ;-/ We definitely need this book now!!
What an adorable game! I would love to win Give Please a Chance for my sweet niece and nephew. They are all into reading and I think this would be an awesome opportunity to build their library!
When my kids were younger I always fixed their plates. After a couple instances of them sitting down, looking at their plates and then grumbling, “yuck,” we made the rule that :
* if you say yuck, you have to eat everything on your plate
* if you try everything (at least two bites), you could politely say, “I don’t care for this,” and then you wouldn’t have to eat it the rest.
The goal was to make them appreciate what they had, and eat at other people’s homes while being polite. I knew we had accomplished this when they ate at someone’s home who fed them chili. My kids hated beans. When I asked them what they did, they said they ate the first bowl, and said ‘no thank you’ to the second bowl!
Good manners are so important, I don’t want to have the kids that get glared at in restaurants.
I would like to win because several of my kids would really benefit from this book. Thanks for the giveaway!
We have been really trying to work on “Yes ma’am/sir” and “No ma’am/sir”. I can’t wait to try this game today with my little guys (who am I kidding, I’m going to have my olders practice, too!). I would love to win a copy of the book.
By the way, LOVE the pictures. Very fun how your husband had such a good time with it.
This book would be great to win! Good manners is so important. Love the pics and so glad I found your website. It’s the best! You always brighten my day!
I would love to win this for my kids. Good manner is the foundation of everything.
Manners are important to learn so we can be a part of our culture. To have more fun ideas how to make manners a habbit I’d love to win a book for my children.
I would love this for my kids, one of whom seems to have forgotten the “magic word.” As kids, we were raised that there are certain people who deserve your outright respect — the pastor being one of them. So our pastor was a big goofball when not at the pulpit. Our church was doing some renovating, and my dad had taken us to the church to help out. My younger brother was standing near the stage when the pastor walked near him and let one rip! My brother, being a 9 year old boy who thinks farts are hilarious, was trying so hard not to laugh, when the pastor blamed it on him. My dad then walked by and said “Kristopher, did you fart in church?” My very confused brother’s [very polite] response was “well I didn’t think I did, but a pastor wouldn’t lie.”
This looks like a GREAT addition to our easy readers – as well as reinforcing something we take seriously around here, y’all – good manners! Sometimes I feel our kids are in the minority of folks that say “yes, ma’am” and “no, sir” – and we always want to work on more “yes, please”s and “no thank you”s! I’m thankful for this modern children’s book that focuses on what some think are “old fashioned” manners 🙂 ! Thanks for running a great give-away! Good luck, everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!
I teach a class of four year olds and we are always working on manners! This looks like a great book.
This would be great to use with my two girls! 🙂
My younger son definitely needs a little more encouraging with manners. He’s somewhat backward and resistant to what I suggest. Maybe hearing this in book form from an outside source would help. Thanks!
We would love to win because I am struggling with teaching manners (and tantrums) over here. Whoever said twos were terrible never had a three year old!
I’m glad you are enjoying the straight hair weather. Frizz-free days are just about the only thing I like about cold weather!
that looks like a super cute book! would love to share it with my girls. 🙂
I have three kids ages 6 years to 17 months. The older two (4 & 6) could really use some manners help! 😬 My son especially has been bad about just demanding things without any please’s! We could definitely benefit from this book!
I would love to win because I am always teaching my granddaughters about good/bad manners and would like this book to read with them.
I am trying to teach my two young boys how to use their manners. Would love for them to read about how others also use manners, so they do not feel like they are the only ones. Plus, reading is a highlight in our home!
I want to win because my kids can really benefit from this awesome book and teach them about manners. It is such a good teaching book.
I would LOVE a manners book, I’m always working with my nephews and nieces with please and thank you’s! Do you have one that would fix digging forks into the middle of the pies to?!
i would like to win because this is a cut fun way to teach manners. my boys are usually pretty good using manners but need reminding a lot too. i hope soon they will always use manners without reminding
I would love to win because I was brought up with Yes Ma’am (Sir), No Ma’am (Sir) and I have been instilling that into my children and I would love to help them learn why manners are important and when, who, and where to they should use their manners. I would also love for them to instill manners into their own children someday.
We were at a baseball game and there was a man sitting ahead of us wearing a coat with some military patches. My stepson, who was 7 or 8 tapped him on the shoulder and said “I just want to shake your hand, sir.”
I have a 3 1/2 year old grandson who LOVES to have grandma read to him! He is doing a good job of saying ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ but this would be another good way to reinforce that language. I also would like to use the game at school when I sub. We would use the little cards and ‘read’ the rhythms using our ‘rhythm language’ while we are playing the game. Thank you so much for including the cards! I appreciate it!
My kids are eight and eleven and I still remind them about please and thank you and I am always asking if they are using their manners. I would use this book for them and I also substitute teach and I carry books in my survival bag. This would be a great addition for my bag.
I would love to win because I always put a focus on manners with my kids reminding them to say their pleases and thank yous and a book like this would be a great read with them.
Manners are SO important!! Love this printable! I’d love to win to share this with a friend in need.
My preschool class would love this!
I have 3 boys and the manner that has really stuck has been when opening gifts. After opening any gift they say, “thank you, I love it!” I was giving them examples of gratitude statements prior to a birthday and that isn’t what stuck. So now at Christmas it is what everyone/extended family says.😂😂 hope thanksgiving was a good one!
This would be a great book to share with my preschool classs.
We can always use a manners “refresher” in our home 😉 Thank you!
i’d love to win because it is a great book to help teach my kids