Motherhood: We Are Thankful

We AreThankful!By Mary Jane Bogle Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and while 2020 has been a year like no other, now is the perfect time to engage in thankfulness activities with your kids. Here’s why. 3PLAY THE GRATITUDE GAME All you need to play this game is a timer and a small stuffed animal

Studies show that thankfulness can have a huge positive impact on physical health. you can pass from player to player. Gratitude also reduces stress, improves sleep and increases self-esteem— Give the first player the stuffed anisomething we all want for our children…and ourselves! mal. That player has five seconds to share something he or she is thankThankfulness, like many positive qualities we want to instill in our children, ful for before passing the stuffed is more caught than taught. You can’t teach your children to be thankful if toy to the person to the left, who you aren’t thankful yourself. In order to serve up a heaping, healthy dose of in turn shares something, and so gratitude for everyone this Thanksgiving, here are five activities each on. The key is to make it all the way member of the family can enjoy. 1GIVE EVERYONE A THANKFUL JOURNAL This journal can be as simple as a few pages stapled together or as expensive as a leather-bound journal purchased from a stationary store. The main idea is 4CREATE A THANKFUL JAR The week before Thanksgiving, leave out a jar or basket with a around the circle as many times as possible without repeating or pausing between players. to journal about all that you are thank- notepad and pens. Throughout the ful for. Small children can draw pictures, week, encourage people to write while older kids and parents can write a brief note or draw a picture of longer entries. Pass out the journals the something they appreciate and put first of November, encourage everyone it in the jar. Have the kids read the to make at least two entries per week, items on Thanksgiving Day. 2 and then read your favorite entries on Thanksgiving Day. MAKE A “THANKFUL TURKEY” CRAFT ENGAGE IN ACTS OF SERVICE AS A FAMILY Make cookies for someone 5 Trace everyone’s hand on colorful who has blessed your famconstruction paper. Then decorate ily, donate used clothes or the turkey face and then have toys to the local shelter, family members write one thing or write letters to serthey are thankful for on each vice members overseas. feather. Be sure to write names and Typically, the more you dates on the back of the turkeys seek to bless others, the and bring them out in a few years more thankful you are for to remind everyone what was the blessings in your own “gratitude worthy” this year. life. It’s a great perspective—and a lesson that won’t be lost on even the smallest members of the family. a