It’s the season of giving, with Thanksgiving around the corner followed by Christmas/Hanukkah. This is a great time to teach your kids how to be grateful. Instilling the practice of gratitude from a young age will help foster that into their daily lives. Here are 3 helpful ways to teach kids how to be grateful.
1. Begin by telling your kids why you are grateful for them. When they can understand why you are grateful for people and things in your life they can also show gratefulness even in the smallest ways.
2. Model gratitude out loud. Just like everything, the more you speak and say things aloud around your children the more they will pick up on it. Being positive and grateful in your everyday life as a parent will trickle down to the kids. As an example of appreciating the small things in life, we are so grateful to be able to go out to dinner and provide food for the family. We are so grateful to take a weekend trip together or as simple as gratitude towards where you live.
3. Donate with your children. Donating to others in need can really lift your spirits and especially around the holidays. If your children are older you can walk them through the process of donating, where you are donating and what you are donating and how that will bring a smile to a kid’s face that maybe doesn’t have that toy or those shoes. Taking them with you to donate, makes it an experience and one where everyone can feel grateful for what they have.
It’s important to teach love, kindness and gratitude. Kids start to understand from an early age that they can be thankful and appreciate others but gratitude and being grateful is a lifelong process to learn and why not start from a young age to instill such an incredible trait into your kids.
