Photo by thomasfam14

The toddler years are the perfect age to start teaching your kids manners and good habits.

CafeMom MrsManners aka: Angela Pitre, owner of the CM group Manners for the Modern Family and MannersMadeFun.com, is here to help.

Dear MrsManners:

My daughter is in daycare and has started biting other children. What should I do? I'm concerned that my daughter will be thrown out of the daycare.. -- Anonymous

Letter practice worksheet from handwritingworksheets.com

"My mom is on CafeMom again" made at handwritingworksheets.com

Found this awesome website handwritingworksheets.com (via Amy), where you can make customizable (and free!) letter-tracing and handwriting practice sheets.

Aren't they fun?

Many of you know Katie, aka aurorabunny, a Daily Buzz reader and devoted mom to 3 year old Brody, who is on the severe end of the autistic spectrum. He uses sign language to talk, and until recently had been prone to being easily overwhelmed in loud places or when meeting strangers. He would bang his head and pull his hair in moments of frustration.

This year aurorabunny enrolled him an "inclusionary" school for children with developmental disabilities. He's in a class with only four other little boys and twice that many therapists and teachers.

It's not easy. She drives two hours round trip every day to get there. It's costing her a small fortune, she had to sell her house to afford it but ... it's been so worth it.

Brody is doing wonderfully, and I asked her to share this good news to reassure moms that in the right place and with the right teachers, autistic children are indeed capable of incredible things:

According to a large population-based study that appears in the October issue of The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, researchers studying depression and anxiety disorder (DAS) are seeing early symptoms in very young children.

Photo by AshBayGrammy

Toddlers acting out after starting preschool or pre-K is pretty common, but one CafeMom, NutFctryHedNut, is having a particularly hard time of it with her toddler daughter.

At pick-up, the little girl threw a fit because she didn't get to ride the bus with the other kids.

As she and her mom walked to the car, she ran into the street and ignored her mom's pleas to stop.

Returning home, she's whiny, rude, and won't listen.

Any of this sound familiar? It does to me. Exhaustion and hunger are never a good combo, and that's what most toddlers are after a long day at day care or preschool. Even children who are little angels for their teachers during the day seem to save it all up and take it out on their parents.

Here's how other CafeMoms have dealt with these behavior issues successfully:

Photo from Childish Thoughts

Well, where else do creative tots keep their crayons handy than in the crayon apron?

Photo by stacy77

Moms of kids starting preschool or kindergarten for the first time this year have enough to worry about -- what to pack for lunch, adjusting to the new schedule, making sure their kids like their teachers and are making friends.

What a shame that some of these moms, just days into the new school year, are already dealing with the flu!

"My daughter started kindergarten on Monday in a pre-K through 1st grade school," says one CafeMom. "I just got a call from the school automatic call system to make us aware that they have three confimed cases of Swine Flu! I'm suppossed to get more info sent home with her today, but this has me freaked out ...

Photo by takimia

To cindermarie05 and other moms whose hearts are breaking as they transition their tots back into day care or preschool or send them for the first time, I join other Toddler Moms who've been through it in saying DON'T WORRY. IT WILL GET BETTER. Really, it will.

This is hard to believe when you're standing there, screaming toddler clutching your leg begging you to take him with you, feeling like the worst, most heartless mother in the world. YOU WILL SURVIVE AND YOUR KIDS WILL BE FINE. I promise.

cindermarie05 said the first couple of days of day care were pretty good for her 3 year old daughter. But she's been having a hard time with separation anxiety lately.

Photo by Robinlynnme

Genevieve Thiers, CEO of Sittercity.com, pays a visit to Toddler Buzz today with tips on how to help your shy toddler or school age child cope with the coming school year.

While many children whine about having to go back to preschool or grade school, some children completely dread the experience and are too shy to even see the fun, positive aspects for going back to school. If this sounds like your child, back-to-school can be an especially unnerving time.

So Sittercity.com has some tips to help quieter kids cope with these new school-year changes.

DITCH THE "SHY" LABEL

How many times have you or someone else said, "Oh, Joey's just shy"? It seems like a harmless aside, but labeling a child as "shy" actually makes it even harder for him to feel like he can be anything else.

Photo by mom.of.2

If my little girl had been born five days earlier, I might be getting ready to send her off to kindergarten in another month. And I'd be getting nervous. She'd have been the youngest in her class, and I'd be going back and forth on whether I'd made the right decision to send her.

I'm glad she missed the cut-off and the decision was made for me. As much as my husband can't wait to get rid of the day care payment -- and even considered asking the school district to make an exception -- I feel she's still very much a toddler, both size and social wise.

Another CafeMom in the Newcomer's Club is going through a "do I hold him back?" debate, but with a 3 year old and preschool.