Friday, November 4, 2011

Thankful Children

Today I am posting at Three Thinking Mothers about inspiring gratitude in our children.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~ John F. Kennedy



Showing Appreciation - Our girls are getting to an age where I can see that they genuinely appreciate what we do for them.  In September, A and I had a night out alone and I know she genuinely appreciated that because she still talks about it all the time!  The other day my mom took A shopping for her birthday (today - November 4 - is her 12th birthday!) and A came home with a big silk flower for P to wear in her hair.  P was teary with happiness and wrote how thankful she was in our gratitude journal!

Gratitude Pitcher/Journal - Last November our family wrote down what we were grateful for each day and placed the papers in a pitcher which sat on our dining room table.  We all enjoyed sitting around on Thanksgiving morning reading what everyone was thankful for!  But none of us wanted to discard the papers...so when we started talking about doing a Gratitude Pitcher this year, we decided to use a journal instead.  We each write what we are grateful for each day in the journal...to read more, please click over to Three Thinking Mothers.

How do you inspire gratitude in your children?
Do you have a particular instance when your child showed gratitude beautifully?

Have you made up a list of what you are thankful for this week?
Please link up with Thankful Thursdays!