Simple Home Living: how to make a princess book of manners

There's just something about a gift that is made from the heart and hands and that doesn't cost much.

I have a GREAT gift idea for you AND it will cost you next to nothing, you'll leave a legacy with a little one, you'll spend some quality time with that little one and you'll use the time for a special date AND a life long teaching moment!

Here's my idea: Make a Princess or Prince Book of Manners

I'm a big one on teaching kids respect for authority and things, how to work hard and to have good manners. I tell my grandsons that good manners is important if they're going to get good jobs and make a good living to provide for their families.

Well, I had this idea with my firstborn granddaughter, Jillian, to make her a book of manners with her own pictures in it. I called it the Sweet or Sour Princess Book of Manners.

I bought a little photo album at Target, and since I didn't have my digital, I bought a cheap throw away camera.

I took Jillian to Starbucks, gave her one of my hankie, bought her a hot chocolate and told her that we were going to make a special book just for her and it would be about her showing other girls how to be a Sweet Princess or a Sour Princess.

Now, I have to tell you that I didn't make it as nice as it could have been made, but for the children, it didn't really matter and the sweet thing about this little book is that all the grand kids have loved to look through it and it's been a teaching tool that just gets passed down. I'm working on making one for Ivana, Zane and Miriam. I took my pictures a few months back and am just needing to buy the little book to put the pics in.

So, after you take your pictures, you then write the story. Mine reads:

Once upon a time . . . there was a little princess . . . and her name was . . . Jillian Rose, and Princess Jillian learned to be a sweet princess and not a sour princess . . .

A sweet princess never uses her arm to wipe her are to wipe the food off her mouth . . . she uses her napkin. A sweet princess never licks the food from her plate . . .a sweet princess uses a fork and always has a napkin on her lap . . . only a sour princess would pick her nose . . .but, a sweet princess uses her hanky. . . .

I think you can get the idea. I also embellished the book with some little scrap book trinkets. At this writing, the little ones have taken them off, but it was cute.

Let me know how your Princess Manners Book turns out!