This video presents a rather zany but valuable lesson in manners. Designed to engage kids of all ages, Look Mom! I Have Good Manners adopts a question-and-answer format that gets kids thinking. Viewers test their manner skills in five categories: mealtime, playtime, telephone, school, and healthy manners.

A goofy host as well as real-life kids help children think about such important skills as proper use of napkins, place settings, thank-you notes, taking phone messages, and even “nasty” things like picking your nose, burping, etc.

Mysterious food is one of the topics – what do you do when you are at your friend’s house and you are served food you’ve never tried before. Should you feed it to the family dog or poke and prod your food? More topics include manners on the playground, taking turns, cleaning up toys, being a good sport, and showing respect for others (and yourself) by adopting healthy manners.

For the most part, the video features multiple-choice questions, although it also includes such questions as, "Which manners rule is this person breaking?", brainbuster questions and speed rounds. Children can tally up their points as they go along.

Many questions have obvious answers, but they serve as humorous reminders that demonstrate that manners rules, for the most part, are simple common sense. For example, any child will know that grunting when they meet someone new is not correct behavior, but the addition of these clearly incorrect answers not only makes kids laugh, it gets their brains thinking about appropriate vs. inappropriate behavior. One of the questions about sharing sparked a small debate between kid testers—should you put away a special toy before a friend comes over if you don’t want to share it? This video is fun while it lasts.

Our Rating:   A

[For more information, or to buy: Look Mom! I Have Good Manners at Amazon.com or buy the video at BigKidsVideo.com ]

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Reviewed February 2004 Comments? Email us.