It is easy to teach children table manners. Practicing at home gives children the knowledge and confidence for more formal situations such as when they are at a nice restaurant or visiting someone's home.

 If you have an open floor plan, turn off the television. Choose a fabric table cover and cloth napkins.  Set the table with china dishes and crystal glasses. Set a full place setting: dinner and salad forks, silver knife, and however many spoons you will need for the meal.

Show the children to put the napkin on their laps.  Remind them not to put their elbows on the table.

For the first practice dinner, put the food on the dishes in the kitchen just as it would be done in a restaurant. The next time that they have dinner, put the serving dishes on the table and teach them how to pass and serve.

Explain that silverware is used from the farthest away from the plate first. Since the salad is the first course, the salad fork will be the farthest from the dish, the dinner fork will be closer, and the dessert fork will be closest to the plate. Explain to the child to use the outside fork first, the outside spoon first. The silver knife never leaves the dinner plate. The butter dish should have a small butter knife on it.

 Ask the children to practice speaking quietly to their "dinner partners", who will be the people sitting beside them or directly across from them at the dinner table. Explain that if they want to speak to someone who is already having a conversation that they should wait for a break in the conversation and then say, "Excuse me, may I interrupt?". 

After the meal is finished, show the kids how to fold the cloth napkin and put it on the table beside the dinner plate. They should thank their host or hostess for a delicious meal and then ask to be excused before leaving the table. 

Your children will have confidence when they are taken to more formal situations such as wedding receptions or dinner at the country club.

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