It’s November! Holy moly where did this year go? November in our house is big because we have Hank’s birthday (my baby is 1) and Thanksgiving (Steven’s favorite holiday). We are particularly excited about Thanksgiving this year because we have family coming out from Indiana and some of our closest friends are back from Japan and will get to come spend it with us too!
In the midst of all the excitement, one thing that has become increasingly important to me is teaching my children to be thankful. I like to do this all year-long but for the past few years I have tried to be very intentional about it in November. Teaching children to be grateful for the things they have is extremely important. We don’t want to raise children that cannot appreciate the blessings in their life.
I have mentioned before I am not crafty, but I have found that crafts are often a good way to get the girls to be involved and engaged in hands on activities.
Last year, I made a turkey and had two feathers for each day and each girl that told us something they were thankful. We would write it on the feather. I’ll be honest, I’m pretty proud of my thankful turkey.
This year I found a really fun and easy wreath to make. You can find the tutorial here Chica and Jo Thanksgiving Wreath
The wreath turned out so well. I had the girls paint the clothes pins. They did awesome. As a bonus, I put a Bible verse that I want the girls to work on in the middle. We are doing the same thing as last year and planning on writing one thing on a clothes pin everyday for each girl.
It really is fun to ask what they are thankful for each day. It could be so serious one day like acknowledging a family member. Then, as quickly as the seasons change, the next day could be as silly as being thankful for unicorns. Whatever it is, we take it. We want to teach them to be thankful for everything God has given us. The only rule we have is no repeats.
We are also doing a second project this year, that I am pretty excited to share. Each weekday we are going to write a letter to one person or family telling them why we are thankful for them. This is a double duty project too. It is hopefully going to help teach them to express to others why they are thankful and I am going to use it as writing practice for them. So if you get a letter you may need to take a little time to decipher it.
These are just a couple extra things I am going to do to help practice thankfulness in November. Do you or your children have any special projects you do for Thanksgiving?