SoSara

Preschoolers learn to mind their manners

CLIFTON PARK — Imagine a classroom full of preschoolers minding their manners — and having fun doing it.

Welcome to the Mother Goose School of Etiquette, where 4- to 6-year-olds are instructed in the fine points of politeness. The preschoolers learn everything from how to set a table to how — and why — to write a thank you note. Parents are impressed when their children not only say please and thank you but start holding open doors and pulling out chairs.

“One child was at a party with her parents when she said, ‘Mom, you’re holding your glass wrong,’” said Lisa Ann Farone, a/k/a Mother Goose. The proper way, the 4-year-old explained to her mother, was to hold the stem so as not to warm the drink.

Etiquette lessons fell out of vogue for a couple of decades, Farone said, but now they are back in demand. With increasing global trade, business executives are paying to learn how to act correctly.

“We deal with people from all around the world,” she added. “It just becomes so important.”

But preschoolers?

“Eighty-five percent of the social skills are formed by age 5,” said Farone, who holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology and sociology and a master’s degree in public health. “When they get it at a young age, they get into these habits for life.”

Parents should realize that etiquette lessons are just as important as piano lessons, T-ball and summer camp, said Farone, whose 8-week fall session begins on Sept. 14 — in the middle of National Courtesy Month — at the Tiny Tots Tea Room in the Exit 8 Plaza (1536 Crescent Rd.).

“We invest in our children so much,” she said. “Yet their manners are going to get them further in life.”

While Mother Goose teaches proper place settings, etiquette is “so much more than where the salad fork should go,” Farone said. That’s why the school’s curriculum includes kindness, respect, telephone manners and how to be a good guest — and what to do when you receive a gift you don’t like.

“The typical 4-year-old response is to say, ‘No, thank you,’” Farone said, “because they think that’s the polite thing to do.”

The children love the lessons — and the lists they are given on topics such as “foods I may eat with my fingers.” And Farone loves teaching them. In addition to Mother Goose, she also visits schools and play groups to spread the word about good manners. She has appeared at the Kids Expo and said she would like to visit every school in the state to teach about etiquette.

“I want to reach as many children as I can,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like work if you love what you do.”

For more information:

• Mother Goose School of Etiquette, 369-9577