How to Teach Your Child Thankfulness

Thankfulness is sort of a difficult concept to teach to young ones, especially when they are at the stage where everything is "mine!" This is definitely not a one day lesson where the kids will understand right off the bat. This will take time to teach, which is why we focus on this during the whole month of November! Here are some ideas on how to teach your child about the virtue of gratitude during this holiday season.

• Appreciation Jar: This is something that you can start one afternoon and continue as long as anything of appreciation comes up in conversation. Take some popsicle sticks and write down on each stick one thing that one family member is appreciative of. Ask them "what is something you love?" Every time you write some thing on a stick, talk about why that person loves it and why it's called appreciation. Add to this jar as often as you'd like. The more sticks in the jar, the happier we feel!

• Positivity Journal: This is more so for children who are ready and able to write out their thoughts. Have them keep a journal that only they can read and write in. Then, at night time every night, come together as a family with your private journals and encourage each family member to write down three things that made them happy that day. It could be something super simple like they saw a dog on the way home from school or something huge like they stayed dry through the night. Whatever it is, don't ask to read it. Allow them to have this journal privately so they don't feel like they have to write something specific to make mom or dad happy. Just strongly encourage them to write three positive things and to focus on happy.

• Conversations: Listen for any teaching moments in the middle of random conversations that you have with your child and throw in words like appreciate, thankful, gratitude, positive, happy, etc. The more the children hear these words used correctly in conversation, the more they will understand what it means.

• Family Dinners: Eating dinner with the family is so important for young children to discover togetherness, unity and support within a family. These virtues all go with thankfulness/gratitude so it's always great to start from somewhere! I understand that sometimes, it's hard to eat as a family. Especially with older children's schedules being so crazy with extra-curricular activities. But when you can, sit down as a family, talk about your days, ask questions, and just generally enjoy each other's company before all the bedtime craziness.

• Recognizing Our Feelings: As your child has problems and tantrums, at home and in public, take that time to get on their level and talk about what they're feeling. How do they think the child that they hit feels? How do they feel that they made their friend sad? How does it feel that someone has a toy that they want? The more you help them put a name to their feelings, the better your child will understand the concept of thankfulness and feelings in general. It's difficult for them to put into words how they feel if they don't have the words in their vocabulary yet.

Let me know if you have any ideas on how to teach Thankfulness to your child! We'd love to hear what you think.

Front Desk Shelves + Resources

There are so many unused resources up by the front desk that we have for anyone to use! If you need help locating any of these, just ask one of the teachers and we will help you. The resources are listed below:

Backpack Kits: These are see through activity backpacks that you can take home! Each one has a book or an activity poster with corresponding pieces that helps guide you in this activity with your child. You can take one at a time home as long as you sign it out on the clipboard on the shelf. Feel free to take these as often as you'd like; that's what they're there for! 

File Folder Games: These are very similar to the backpack kits as you can take them home to play whenever you'd like! These are just a file folder games that your child can most likely do by themselves. There are many different kinds for many different development levels. Check them out and take them home!

Parent Help Books: This shelf has so many helpful books if you're struggling with something at home. Whether it be tantrums at home or you're just needing ideas on new fun things to do on the weekend, there are answers on this shelf! Just check them out on the same clipboard next to the file folder games. There is even a book on how to explain baby-making to your curious child! 

To Take Shelf: This shelf is here for you to take any pluggers, cards, or extra Scholastic booklets that may appear. Check this shelf out often to see if you are interested in anything offered. If so, please take one! That's what the shelf is for!

What We Found Today Shelf: This is where any of your child's belongings will be that aren't labeled or too small for a label. Your child's belongings will be on this shelf before they are placed in the Lost + Found bucket. Please check this daily to see if your child's belongings ended up on the shelf!

Lost + Found: This is emptied out every month so please check it often! You never know what is going to end up in there (usually hair clips and stuffed animals), so please look! Juju will send out an email before she empties it so you can get one last look in it before it all gets donated. 

Thank you in advance for using our resources! They're there for a reason and we'd love to get some use out of them. :)