Encouraging Your Kids to Be Thankful
One of the first things we try to teach our kids is gratitude. We prompt them to say thank you for birthday gifts and compliments. I do want my kids to say thank you, but more than that, I want to encourage thankfulness that manifests as a deep appreciation for the blessings they receive daily. You might call it having an attitude of gratitude.
Gratitude is a popular buzzword these days, with much attention being paid to the connection between gratitude and life satisfaction. Thankfulness has been shown to improve attitudes and relationships and who doesn’t want that? Let’s look at how to encourage thankfulness in our kids.
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Character Trait of the Month List
Each month, as part of our homeschool learning, I focus on a specific character trait. There are many character traits worth pursuing, but given the time frame of the school year, I narrowed my list down to ten.
3 Simple Ways to Encourage Thankfulness
Here are three ways you can begin encouraging your child to practice gratitude today.
NOTICE THE LITTLE THINGS
First, pay attention to the small stuff. Talk about being thankful for cozy slippers on a cold morning or refreshing lemonade on a hot day. Noticing the little things and taking the time to appreciate them creates a mindset of thankfulness. We can’t be thankful for things that we don’t even notice! Make an effort to be present in the moment and have conversations with your kids about what inspires gratitude in you.
GIVE TO OTHERS
Second, demonstrate the importance of giving back. Giving by helping others, volunteering, or even giving kind words allows kids to see gratitude in others and understand how it feels to be the recipient of that gratitude. Giving also reduces the sense of entitlement many kids feel when they are showered with too much stuff.
REFRAME NEGATIVITY
Third, focus on what you do have rather than what you don’t have. Emphasize finding the good in a situation. This is hard for adults, let alone kids, and requires constant effort to reframe negativity toward an attitude of gratitude. Instead of complaining about the one thing that went wrong in your day, make a point to talk about the good parts. Encourage your kids to focus on the fact that they got a cookie, not the detail that someone else got the biggest one. You’ll feel like a broken record with this one, but it’s worth it!
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Exploring Thankfulness with Quotes and Questions
Here are a few quotes about thankfulness, along with questions you can use to engage your kids in conversation or use as a writing assignment or journal prompt.
Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.
Albert Schweitzer
Question: Is there someone to whom you owe thanks for kindling a light inside you? Write a note of thanks to them.
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
John F. Kennedy
Question: How do we express gratitude through the way we live?
When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow.
Shauna Niequist
Question: Have you ever been thankful during a really tough time? Do you believe it’s possible to be grateful when life feels overwhelming?
Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.
Alphonse Karr
Question: Can you think of a time that you were able to change your perspective and find thankfulness in a situation that most people would grumble about?
More Gratitude Quotes
Here are a few additional quotes about thankfulness you may wish to consider as alternatives, or use in addition to the four above. These quotes don’t necessarily use the word thankfulness, but the ideas behind these quotations are related to the same concept.
It’s a funny thing about life. Once you begin to take note of the things you are thankful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.
Germany Kent
When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
Tecumseh
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
William Arthur Ward
Express gratitude for the greatness of small things.
Richie Norton
Thankfulness News Articles and Reports
Here are a few sources for news articles containing stories of thankfulness. One way to teach thankfulness to kids is to show them specific examples of it in action.
Science News for Students
The website sciencenewsforstudents.org is a great resource for science-related news articles written specifically for kids.
A Recipe for Happiness: Article describing a study of college students and how writing about things they were grateful for influenced the level of happiness they felt.
DOGO News
Another source for kid-friendly news articles is dogonews.com
Veterans Day Celebrates Our Real-Life Superheroes: This article explains the purpose of veterans day as a way to say thank you to those who have served in our military.
Books that Explore Thankfulness
These books explore the theme of curiosity through engaging stories. Those Shoes by Meribeth Boelts is a beautiful picture book about the difference between wants and needs and how gaining appreciation for what we have changes our perspective. The Secret of Saying Thanks by Douglas Wood is a reflection on gratitude for the world around us. Tiny Gratitudes by Brooke Rothshank captures a year of tiny paintings and meditations about gratitude. The One Minute Gratitude Journal by Brenda Nathan is a place to record gratitude through words and drawings.
Short Video Content Related to Thankfulness
These links are videos I added to my kids’ Google classrooms in November to get them thinking about thankfulness.
Attitude of Gratitude (YouTube – Patrick Givens): Nick Vujicec, born with no arms or legs, inspires us all to practice gratitude.
The Amazing Effects of Gratitude (YouTube – BrainCraft): Short video describing psychological and physical benefits of gratitude.
Movies with a Thankful Theme
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is the classic tale of friendship and gratitude, appropriate for all ages.
Mr. Holland’s Opus is the story of a composer who resigns himself to teaching high school music. HIs students ultimately respond with enormous gratitude.
Up reminds us to appreciate each moment we’re given, and to always look for new opportunities to be grateful.
Activities to Encourage Thankfulness in Kids
Try some of these ways to develop gratitude in your child.
GRATITUDE JOURNAL
Have your kids start a gratitude journal. It doesn’t need to be any special journal; any notebook will do. They can keep it by their bed and jot down something they’re thankful for as part of their nighttime routine. If it seems overwhelming to think about writing something down daily, pick a day of the week and make it a weekly occurrence. Try adding Thankful Thursday journaling to your homeschool activities.
Find gratitude prompts for a month of journaling at 30 Days of Thankful
WRITE THANK YOU NOTES
Make a point to have your kids write thank you notes for birthday and Christmas gifts. When they’re little, help them out by writing some of it for them or writing down words for them to copy. As they are able, have them write a few lines of sincere thankfulness to the person who gave them a gift, spent time with them, or inspired them in some way.
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
Start a family thank you list. Grab a notebook and keep it somewhere accessible. Encourage everyone to add to the list whenever they find themselves feeling grateful for something.
Set up a gratitude jar. All you need is a mason jar, cookie jar, or a box, plus some paper. Cut plain copy paper into pieces about the size of a business card (2″x3″) or smaller. Have everyone in the family write down something they’re thankful for each week and add it to the jar. On days when it seems like nothing’s going right, you’ll be able to pull out those slips of paper and refocus on all you have to be thankful for.
Take a minute during a family meal to ask everyone what they’re thankful for today or this week. Go around the table and give each person an opportunity to share something that’s inspired gratitude in them. The more we practice gratitude, the more we begin to look for and notice all the things we’re thankful for in our lives.
Scriptures to Encourage Thankfulness
Thanksgiving is a recurring theme in the Bible. The Psalms are filled with praises that offer thanks to the Lord, offering a great meditation on giving thanks for both God’s character and his care for us. In the New Testament Christians are encouraged to always be thankful. Gratitude should be our response when we acknowledge who God is and what he has done for us through Jesus.
I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
Psalm 9:1 (NIV)
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalm 118:1 (NIV)
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances…
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)
Read: Thanksgiving Scripture Reading Plan
Free Printable Thankfulness Quotes and Questions
By subscribing to my mailing list, you have access to my printables library, where you can download a free printable list of these four quotes and accompanying questions. Use them as discussion questions, a writing assignment, or journal prompts.
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How to Encourage Thankfulness in Kids
The best way to encourage thankfulness in kids is of course to model it yourself. Make sure your kids hear you thanking the grocery clerk, gas station attendant, Say thank you to your kids whenever they help out or you catch them treating someone else with dignity and respect. Find ways to help them see how kids in other parts of the world live. Remember that it’s ok, and even best, to require them to work for something they want to buy. More stuff will not make them more thankful, and at some point, only more dissatisfied. Cultivate an atmosphere of thankfulness in your home that includes noticing and acknowledging blessings big and small.
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November Character Trait Focus: Thankfulness
