With Thanksgiving being in November, many people during this month share what they are thankful for and participate in 30-Day Thankful challenges. I love things like this that help stir up an attitude of gratitude. Back in September, I participated in a thankful challenge and journaled daily five things I was grateful for, it is amazing how an attitude of gratitude can make your day go so much better. I am grateful for Thanksgiving which gets us all talking about what we are thankful for.
Over the years I have endeavored to do some kind of thankful activity with my children every November. We have made a tree out of construction paper and hung it on our wall, adding leaves daily of what we were grateful for.
I found this grateful tree at Target and these foam leaves at my local craft store. There are a lot of simple ways to start a daily thankful activity. I think any thankful activity is important because it is visual and interactive for your children. With these simple purchases, you don’t have to worry about a Pinterest fail. Pick up some leaves from the craft store, use a punch hole and string to make a thankful banner you can hang across your mantle.
We have made a thankful jar, we wrote what we were thankful for on strips of paper and placed them in a Thanksgiving-themed jar.
We have used craft sticks with thankful prompts and everyone picks a stick during dinner every evening the entire month of November and we share what we are thankful for based on the prompt. You can download this PDF version to use or copy on craft sticks.
We have made Turkey’s and wrote on the feathers things we were thankful for.
Last year I used a vase, that had branches and we hung leaf-shaped cutouts on the branches, each day adding what we were grateful for.
This year we are writing on a pumpkin what we are thankful for, I’m sure you have seen this on Pinterest, simple, all you need is a pumpkin real or faux and a sharpie. There are so many great ideas for thankful activities, you can skip the activity and just every day around the dinner table share what you are thankful for, I just like the idea of an activity because it is a visual reminder. As your family sees your thankful tree, grateful pumpkin or jar daily, hopefully, it will remind them to be thankful. I find it changes the conversation throughout our home. I also find what one person is thankful for often spurs on the other people of things to be thankful for.
The method you use is really not the important part, the important part is that you ignite an attitude of gratitude in your home. I hope my children will remember these activities when they grow up and have families of their own. I hope these thankful activities inspire my children to be thankful not only during Thanksgiving month but all year long.
Here is an old blog post I wrote “The Little Things I’m Grateful For” it is not Thanksgiving themed, it is about a time when our water heater went out and a great reminder to be thankful for the little things. It is so easy to take for granted simple things we use every day like hot water.
Here are some great thankful quotes I love.
It is not happy people who are thankful but thankful people who are happy.
The more you are thankful, the more you attract things to be thankful for.
The root of joy is gratefulness.
When asked if my cup is half full or half empty, my response is I’m thankful I have a cup.
A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles.
What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?
In all things give thanks. I Thessalonians 5:18
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