Teaching Character with Cookies

I love when good ideas literally fall into your lap. I was at my local library looking for alligator books becasue we were kind of doing a letter of the week idea with my youngest at the time. Nothing real serious, just some fun books. This one  literally dropped in my lap from the shelf . It  looked perfect for what I was looking for.  I read through it quickly and the idea of using this book to teach a character trait was born.

I am a huge fan of using books to teach any kind of character trait or life lesson.This book was about a little alligator who really wants some cookies that  his mom has just made. He tries several different ways to get a cookie, but he never asks nicely for it. At the end of the book he discovers if he asks nicely ( including saying please) then his mom happily gives him a  cookie.

To really make the concept come alive for my youngest I decided to make cookies and make this a fun learning experience. I let her help me make cookies along with the other 2 kids. While the cookies baked we all sat down and read this book. I had already talked to the older kids about what we were doing so they were in on it.  We talked a little bit about the book and how its really nice to say please, and how having good manners is really great. I thought if I included the older kids then they would not only be able to help encourage Charlye but they would also get a little reminder about manners.

Once the cookie were done and cooled Charlye instantly started demanding one. I had the other two kids ask nicely for a cookie. I gave them both a cookie and told them thank you for asking nicely just like the little alligator did in the story. You could see the light bulb go off in Charlye’s head and she very quickly asked for a cookie the right way by saying please and asking nicely.

From that moment on if she starts getting demanding all I had to say is – How does the alligator ask? And she remembers the character  lesson from the book and asks nicely. I am a big fan of manners with kids and I could have taught her this lesson many different ways but this was a creative and tasty way that seemed to really have stuck with her.

The point of this post was not tell you to go and buy this book , hopefully it encouraged you to try some creative ways to teach your children character traits. Plus – who doesn’t like a reason to make cookies? If you need a great cookie recipe you should check ours out by clicking here!

For those of you who who want to know what book I used this is it below-

May I please have a Cookie? By Jennifer Morris

I know character is mainly caught , not taught. But what creative ways have you taught your kids Character Traits? 

Linking up this post with- Christian Mommy Blogger for Fellowship Fridays , A little R&R