Ways Your Family can practice being Thankful

As Thanksgiving approaches, we focus a lot on being thankful.  The following is a simple and realistic list of ways your family can practice being thankful. You don't have to save these ideas for Thanksgiving either; you can do these things all year round.

Ways to Practice Being Thankful

• Model it. The children in our lives are watching and learning from us all the time. What we say and do, they say and do. So use that to your advantage and model being thankful.  Look for opportunities to give specific thanks to the people around you. You'll be surprised how quickly your children follow suit.
• Read books about thankfulness. Books provide another opportunity to model behaviors we want to see in our children. The conversations that go along with a book about being thankful is what will have a lasting effect. I've put together a list of picture books on this topic that we are currently enjoying and discussing, but there are many more out there.

• Create a "Thankful For" board. Keep the conversation going with a thank you board. You can introduce it well before Thanksgiving and continue adding to it long after the New Year. You can make one that will add to your fall decor like this beautiful one from Craftionary, or you can keep it simple and just use a white board or chalkboard for family members to list ideas on.

• Make a thank you card. My daughter loves making these wax resist watercolor cards from Happy Hooligans. After a conversation about who we're thankful for and why, we worked together to make a thank-you card for a loved one.

• Send something to thank the troops. Many families have members who are serving our country in some fashion. Many of those soldiers won't be home for the holidays, so make their day and set a good example for your kids by working together to send something as a thank-you to the troops.  You could send something to a specific enlisted family member or friend. Or you can send show your thanks through Operation Shoebox.

• Volunteer at or donate to a food bank. I can't think of a better way to show our kids that they have so many blessings to be thankful for than to discuss the purpose of a food bank and then work together to contribute to it. This article from The Deliberate Mom gives very useful tips for donating to your food bank.

These are just some of the ways our family is practicing being thankful. Want more ideas? You can find many more by following me on Pinterest, I've pinned several!I'd love to hear how you and your family practice being thankful in the comments below.

And if you found this post helpful, say "thanks" by pinning it and sharing it with others. Thank you!