Teaching Thankfulness

Thanksgiving is less than a week away! Regardless if you celebrate or not giving thanks is an important social skill and a key element to creating strong relationships.
Teaching kids to be thankful benefits your child by developing: better attitudes, closer relationships, attentiveness, and sensitivity towards others. Here are some tips on how to teach thankfulness to children.

1. Teach Good Manners. Thankfulness and good manners go hand in hand. Saying “Thank You” is a great way to express good manners. Remind them why they are saying ‘thank you’ rather than just being a learned behavior.
2. Create a Thankful Routine. Mealtime or family time is a great opportunity for this! Take time out of every day to ask them what they have been thankful for and discuss why they are thankful.
3. Modeling Thankfulness. This is super important because children learn many behaviors from their parents. Something like “Thank you for cleaning up” 0r “That’s a really nice thing to say” can go a long way.
4. More Than Material. It’s easy to be thankful for a new phone, video games, and toys but try to have your children understand that it’s more than just the object. If they give an answer “I am thankful for my new phone.” encourage them to extend their thinking, perhaps being thankful for the person that gave it to them or thankful for the ability to call their parents at anytime.
5. Explain the Process. A great opportunity for this is at the dinner table! If they are thankful for the food tell them how the food came to the table: where did the turkey come from, how are mashed potatoes made, who cooked the food?

Thank You!!!