Thirty Days of Thankfulness

October 31, 2013 in Family, Teaching by Anna

Thirty Days of Thankfulness! - Learn Like A Mom! http://learnlikeamom.com/around-the-house/conversation/thirty-days-thankfulness/

Thanksgiving will be here before we know it! If you’re like us, you have an extra pumpkin around the house right now. I’d like to challenge you to Thirty Days of Thankfulness for the month of November. By the end of the month, you’ll have one thankful pumpkin on display to kick off the holidays! You’ll also have a family that realizes they have much to be thankful for!

I thought of this idea one year when I was visiting family. I was trying to think of a way to use a little pumpkin that my niece and nephew had for decoration. So we sat around the table and tried to list everything we were thankful for. As they contributed, I wrote keywords with a marker all over the pumpkin. Even when we were done with our brainstorming activity, they would think of things to add to our thankful pumpkin.

It’s a simple yet meaningful activity that encourages children (and adults) to find things they are grateful for in their lives. When you’re not writing on it, place the pumpkin in a spot where everyone can see it every day. It serves as a reminder, not only for all the good things in life, but also to continue the challenge with quality family discussions.

If you made these decorative pumpkins, and don’t want to save them, you could paint them a neutral color and write or paint all over them too. We’re going to use a regular picked-from-the-patch pumpkin in our house.

The following document gives brief instructions for this activity. You can clip it to the fridge for this year and/or file it away for next year if you’d like. Or, you can make the conversation more interesting by cutting out the prompt strips from the document and placing them in a jar or container. Each day when you sit down to write on your thankful pumpkin, you can have your child choose a strip to start the discussion.

The prompts on the document are suggestions only. You can create your own conversation or topic of discussion for the day as you move through the month. These prompts are also geared toward children. That’s why you won’t see “work” or “co-workers” on the list. However, this doesn’t have to stop you from contributing.

To print this activity with the prompts, please click here to go to the document.

Thirty Days of Thankfulness! - Learn Like A Mom! http://learnlikeamom.com/around-the-house/conversation/thirty-days-of-thankfulness/

If you’d like to see our progress during November or share photos of your own, think about “liking” Learn Like a Mom on Facebook.

Why don’t we start brainstorming right here?

You may also enjoy these posts:

Pumpkin Books

Thanksgiving Day Books

Banana and Chocolate Pilgrim Hats

What are you thankful for?