Teaching Children To Be Thankful

We are heading into Fall but before Thanksgiving (which I think is a very overlooked holiday these days) arrives. I wanted to give you a head start on thoughts on teaching your children to be thankful. Here is a great post from the blog: Better Parents, Better Families about teaching children to be thankful. But I also wanted to give you an example of an activity that you can do to help train your children about being thankful.





Supplies you will need:
1 large piece of black or brown poster board
several pieces of colored construction paper
scissors
glue or tape
Marker or crayons

Cut out the shape of tree from black or brown poster board. Make it large enough for handprints to be the leaves. Put this up somewhere where everyone in the family can see it.

Next have everyone trace several of their handprints on different colors of construction paper. Then have each person write their names each leaf. (have older siblings help younger ones write their names or parents help do this)
Then ask each child to write down 1 thing on each leaf that they are thankful for. Try to have them save a leaf for each day and write down something to be thankful for each day when you have family devotion times.
At dinner or at bedtime prayers gather to read over the leaves and pray and thank God for those things.

Teaching children to be thankful in a world that is filled with all kinds of stuff can be hard, but you can also make it fun as you shift their thinking from wanting and taking to thanking and giving. Remember what Proverbs 22:6 says:
What other things have you done to teach your children about being thankful? Let us know so we can help each other in the task of raising Godly kids.