Category Ask the Psychologist

Sharing the work means sharing the fun.

People don’t just follow laws and rules. They have responsibilities or jobs, too. By doing these jobs, they help each other and themselves.

In some families, adults and children work side every day, planting, tending and harvesting crops in the fields. In other families, everyone helps sell goods in a small shop or on the street.

Families do different kinds of work in different places. But in every family, grown-ups and children help one another. When everybody helps, the work gets done more quickly. And everyone can share pride in a job well done.

Most children have jobs to do at home, too. Some take out the rubbish or recycling material, put away the laundry or feed the family pet. Some children help take care of their younger brother and sisters. Maybe you lay the table or wash the dishes.

As you do your share of the family’s work, you are learning to be responsible and to help others. What jobs, or responsibilities, do you have at home?

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Every family has rules. Some rules are made by parents and children together. Other rules are made by the parents alone. Once they are set, family rules must be followed.

Rules help the members of a family live happily together. If you break a family rule, what happens? Maybe you have to do extra work as punishment. Maybe you are “grounded” for a while.

Laws are the rules that help the people in a community – or a whole country – live peacefully together. The laws of a town, country, or tribe must be obeyed by all of the people there.

Who makes the laws? In a tribe, it may be the chief and a council of tribal members. In some small towns, most or all of the adults gather together to make laws. In large cities and countries, a few people make the laws for everyone.

What laws do you know? Do you have a favourite law? What law would you make if you were a leader in your community?

Laws affect everyone – even family pets. If you are a pet owner, find out what the local laws are for cats, dogs, horses or other animals you have. For example, some places have a lead law, which means you must walk your dog on a lead. Are registration tags needed? What injections are required? Can you keep a wild animal in your garden?

You may also want to ask a police officer about your local bicycle laws. Does your bike need to be registered? What lights, reflectors, and bells or horns does it need? Are riders required to wear helmets?

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Do you like when people: Let you finish what you are saying? Hold a door open for you? Help you carry a heavy load? Let you join their game?

The word etiquette comes from a French word meaning “ticket”. King Louis XIV posted “tickets” telling people at his palace what to wear and what to do each day.

The first known guide to etiquette was written by a government official in ancient Egypt around 2400 B.C.

Children learn from grown-ups, such as parents and teachers, wherever they go. They learn how to behave at dinner, in school, and in different situations. For example, they learn to sit up straight. They learn to use a serviette when eating. Why do you think it’s good manners not to talk with food in your mouth?

It is almost proper etiquette to say “please” when you ask for something or need help. For example, if you ask a librarian for help finding a book, you say “please”.

When you receive something, you say “thank you” to show you appreciate what you got. It also is good manners to thank people for giving you information.

When you say “excuse me” or “I’m sorry”, you’re telling those near you that you didn’t mean any harm or that you didn’t do something on purpose. For example, when you get off a crowded lift or bus, you say “I’m sorry” if you bump into someone.

Etiquette can be tricky. Sometimes, what is polite in one country might be rude in another. In Japan, you should take off your shoes when you enter a house. In many other parts of the world, guests ususally keep their shoes on.

A tricky part of good manners includes changing your speech to fit the occasion. It would be silly and not very helpful to call, “Excuse me, please, but I’ll catch that for you” when you are playing a ball game. By the time you finished talking, the ball would be on the ground! Ball-playing etiquette requirs you to say, quickly and clearly, “Mine!” when you are catching a flying ball.

What’s the right thing to do? If you don’t know, ask someone. One way to get it “right” most of the time is to act the way you would like others to behave.

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More than 7 billion people call our planet home. There are thousands of different languages and many different religions. In a world so full of people and ideas, how do we all get along?

Friends and neighbours have customs that tell them how to behave. Customs are the “manner” of a country or group of people.

Families and schools have rules about how people should treat one another. The rules spell out what is fair at all.

Countries have laws that tell people what they can and cannot do. Laws show us how to treat other people and our planet with respect.

How should you treat someone from another country? Follow the laws and the rules where you are and respect the local customs. When everyone works together, people get along.

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“Read all about it!” the newspaper seller cries. He knows people want the latest news.

What happened yesterday? Who won the big match? Will it rain tomorrow? People everywhere are curious about events both near and far.

Most people buy newspapers to read at home or while on a train or bus. In some places, newspapers are pinned up on walls so people passing by can read the news. People who can’t read listen as others read the newspaper out loud.

Some newspapers present news on events happening all over the world. Other newspapers print stories about only one neighbourhood or area.

Millions of newspapers are printed every day throughout the world. Nearly every country has at least one daily paper. In many big countries, hundreds of different newspapers are printed and read every day.

Some newspapers have many pages and are printed on huge printing presses. Other newspapers have only a single page and are printed on small copying machines. Some little newspapers are even written by hand.

You can get up-to-the-minute news of the world at the flip of a switch. Electronic machines such as televisions, radios, telephones, mobile phones, and computers put the news at your fingertips.

You can even watch news as it happens, all around the world. Television signals bounce off objects called artificial satellites out in space. The satellites send TV broadcasts from station to station, anywhere on Earth.

Telephone conversations bounce off space satellites or travel through cables lying on the ocean floor so that people can opposite sides of the world can talk to each other.

Using a computer with a modem, a part that connects to phone wires, you can get news from the World Wide Web on the Internet. And you can send and receive news using e-mail.

You can also connect to the Internet without wires, with certain kinds of mobile phones or portable computers. These devices use radio waves to make the connection.

People can send letters, computer files, and other kinds of information from one computer to another using electronic mail or e-mail.

For up-to-the-minute news any time of day or night, people turn on their computers. On the World Wide Web, part of the Internet, electronic newspapers keep people up on the very latest news.

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Today, a plane can take you quickly to any place in the world. But, what if you don’t speak the language of the people there? Don’t worry. Countries around the world use picture signs.

In Afghanistan, some roads are for cars and trucks and others are for camels and donkeys. Drivers from other countries can tell which road is which by picture signs. Almost anyone can understand where to go.

Signs with simple drawings of cars, people, and objects instead of words are easy to “read” even if you can’t read at all.

You read picture signs every day. What do a fork, knife, and spoon on a road sign mean? What does a bed on a sign mean? Have you seen animal-crossing signs for deer, horses, or cows? What is the symbol for a school crossing? How do signs say “School Zone,” or “Deer Crossing”? What signs tell you that toilets and telephones are nearby? Do you know the sign for a playground? The sign for a library?

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