12 Ways You Can Teach Thankfulness to Your KidMin

I have always thought it was so interesting that Thanksgiving comes before Christmas.

A day where we spend being thankful precedes a day where we give and get gifts. I am not going to get into all of that. But I do think it is interesting to note.

Like a lot of things in life, thankfulness is caught, more than it is actually taught. Meaning, that it is something that needs to be shown how to do.

No one is born thankful. If you ever hear a preschooler or a grade-schooler say thank you, it is because someone has taught them to say it.

Ways You Can Teach Your KidMin Kids to be Thankful

Practice it yourself

• Thank your kids for coming every Sunday.
• Thank your teachers and helpers in front of all the kids on stage. Talk about how Mr. Johnny is so very faithful in coming every other week, and how he gives up time during his busy weekends to teach them.
• Send out Thank You cards to the kids who are going above and beyond. Did little Billy pick up trash after church? Send him a thank you card.

Practice it together

• Have a time before Thanksgiving where you go around the room and everyone says what they are thankful for.
• Write it down on a large white board or get those large poster boards.
• Send a journal or a small jar home, every time they are thankful, they can write that down in their journal or put it in the jar.

Act it out

• Have times during the year where you are doing something for other people.
• Operation Christmas Child
• Feed the homeless
• Angel Tree

Talk it through

• Talk about how some kids have nothing. They don’t even have food in their fridge.
• Tell them what to do when they feel envious. Tell them to think about three things that they have that they are thankful for.

Thankfulness is something that needs to be talked about throughout the whole year, but what better time to start then right before Thanksgiving?

How do you teach thankfulness to your kids?

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