Last night for family night, I decided to make it a little more formal.  We usually go on a walk, kick a ball around, or eat a treat together.  But I now think Scout is old enough to learn some real deal lessons.  So last night’s topic was manners.  He already knows that please and thank you are words he should use, but the regularity isn’t there.  So we went through a little lesson, and then played a game with a ball.  If he wanted it, he had to ask please, and once he got it, he had to thank us.  And when he said both of these, the rule was to look in the person’s eyes who he was talking to.  He was pretty good at the game, and since last night he has been using his polite words more.  In fact, I have definitely heard “mine” (the most obnoxious word in the English language) a ton less.  Things only turned south when the end of family night was upon us and Scout was getting pretty exhausted.  He started throwing Navy’s burp cloth at us (thank goodness it was only that), and when he would hit us with it, he would proudly look in our eyes and say “thank you”!  It’s a good start.