we are quickly approaching turkey day. a day of giving THANKS. in preparation for your family's holiday dinner, why not sit around the kitchen table for 30 minutes (more or less depending on you child's interest and attention span) and make a GRATITUDE ALBUM. let's not just TALK about being thankful, but pull out the craft box and DO!
ask your child to write on each page something for which they are thankful, draw and picture and move on to the next page. this can be in a journal, notebook or just papers you can later staple together. make this a new tradition at your thanksgiving dinner to share these books with the table.
this will give your kids time to sit and think of just the things for which they are grateful. you can even phrase it as "what are you happy about, what makes you feel good" or other basic ways for them to start categorizing their life.
the lesson: we often think about things we DON'T have or things we are frustrated about. it is not often we get to think only of the positive.
***added bonus: not having to hear the whining about eating cranberry sauce, but rather hearing just the joy about the buttery mashed potatoes!
