After Thanksgiving it is important to continue teaching and showing our children a thankful heart! Here is a great visual and quality time porject! The Thankful Tree, by Honey Brown
How do you teach your child to be thankful?
I find so often that my children are not thankful for everything they have, they just expect it (and more). Thankfulness is a process and not something that can be learned in one sitting, it needs to be taught and retaught.
It is really important to us that we teach our children to be thankful. It is also important to remember that this earth is not our home and everything we have here will pass away someday. We need to not gather up treasures on earth. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: (Matthew 6:20)
What things can we be thankful for that is not material “stuff“? We need to be thankful for the things that really matter and not just our belongings. We need to learn to be thankful in all things, not just for our things. It is important to think about what things can we be thankful for that will matter eternally.
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
This year we made a thankful tree. The boys gathered some branches from outside and we put them in a vase. We cut out some leaves and wrote things to be thankful for on them. We tried to focus on things other than material “stuff”. The leaves were hung on the tree and it sits on the table as a reminder to us to be thankful.
I originally got the idea for the thankful tree from this site.
Honey is the homeschool mama to five children. She has been homeschooling for five years and tried a variety of different curricula, but the most important thing is that her children learn about the Bible and develop a personal relationship with Jesus. She blogs at Sunflower Schoolhouse and Marketplace Mommies.
