Magick1's Full Review: Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain - The Berenstai...
We, as parents, we have a lot that we have to teach our children. We teach them how to walk, talk, jump, do math, and most importantly how to respect one another and be polite. At least, hopefully all parents teach their children how to respect one another. The other items are important too, but I think being respectful is one major stepping stone we as parents have to set down for our children!
This book addresses some of these issues in a very nice manner. Why is it always mama bear that has to do the teachings with the bear cubs. (I shouldn’t say that, papa bear does help, but there are times….) Sometimes, I wonder if papa bear just doesn’t want that responsibility or if he just wants to be the cubs’ friend rather than the mean papa bear enforcer. Who knows, but when we read these books over and over in our house, it seems like mama bear is the one sitting down with the lesson that was taught by a learning moment rather than just spouting off the rules or the proper things to the children!
The Story
Mama bear was thinking that things seemed to be slipping between the family members. She noticed that not everyone was using their “please” or “thank you” as regularly as they should. Then it was the mean pushing or the grabbing of things from across the table. Yes, things were not going very well in the politeness category in the big bear tree house down the sunny dirt road in big bear country.
When people forget to use the basic of pleasantries, next will come the rudeness, the pushing, the shoving and name-calling. Things just seemed to be getting totally out of hand with the family. Papa bear was getting into the habit of just yelling, like only he could yell, to get the cubs’ attention. But, to no avail!
Mama tried virtually all that she could think of the get sister and brother bear to pay attention or to learn from the rude behavior, and nothing worked. So she devised a plan with penalties if the family did not comply. These penalties were in the form of chores ranging from sweeping the front steps to many other cleaning chores around the house.
As most parents know, children do not like to clean or do their chores. So, this hopefully will be great incentive. Don’t you agree with that? If they don’t act polite, they have a chore to do. You will either have the nicest family in town or the cleanest home in town!
Overall Impressions
Taking charge of bad behavior is the way to nip things in the bud, right? It’s hard to tell what strategy is the best. But, in big bear country, this is how mama bear handled it and tried to teach the family the nice and polite way is the best way. The little cubs had other plans though. They were going to trick mama and the put into action a plan that they hoped would make mama bear back off the politeness chore chart. They knew that they had to do chores if they did not act considerate of other’s feelings.
My daughter gets a laugh each time we read this book because of the sneaky plan that brother and sister bear put together. She realizes how important being polite is and she has used her please and thank you manners since before she was 2 years old. She sees the funny behavior the cubs are using in the book and points out to me that they are doing things wrong. She even laughs at the way they plan to make mama back off the polite behavior telling me that it will never work the way they hope and she explains why that is true.
I think she understands the reasons behind the manners and she is more than accommodating when I have to gently remind her to say please and thank you and excuse me. Heck, this past Halloween she would say “trick or treat please” when we went door to door in our neighborhood. I hope she never loses that! Happy reading!
Social Issues - Manners and Etiquette Juvenile / Children's Fiction - Mama Bear wasn't quite sure how or why it happened...But the Bear family had bec...More at Barnes and Noble
When Mama Bear s efforts to improve her family s manners are unsuccessful, she devises a Politeness Plan--a chart listing a chore as a penalty for eac...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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