Thanksgiving: Teach Your Kids Gratitude

Thanksgiving is the time of year we pause to be grateful for people, for belongings, for happy circumstances. And while it comes naturally to some, giving thanks is actually a skill—one that can be taught to your children. Fun Properly Done shows you how.

Think Grateful. Act Gracious.

FunProperlyDone.com is all about good manners, and a big part of basic etiquette is being thankful. Just thinking about what you’re grateful for is a good step, but it’s even better to act on it. That’s why we take the motto, Think Grateful. Act Gracious.

You can put this into play by teaching kids about gratitude in three ways: Explain, Express, and Exhibit.

Explain gratitude

Kids don’t need a lot of help knowing what makes them happy, but they often need guidance recognizing that their happiness comes from someone or something. You can help kids Think Grateful by helping them verbalize what they appreciate—it can be a list, a picture, or a regular dinner-table conversation. Follow that up by discussing ways they can Act Graciously to let someone know about what they appreciate.

Gratitude can be as easy as demonstrating to someone that they’re important to you. For Thanksgiving celebrations, we often do this naturally; we invite the people we care about to spend time together at dinner. As an invitation business, FunProperlyDone.com sells creative Thanksgiving Dinner cards. By simply sending a special invitation, you’re demonstrating you think that person is important. You “Think Grateful” by remembering them, you “Act Gracious” by sending an invitation.

Express gratitude

An excellent exercise at Thanksgiving time—and year round—is to keep a gratitude journal, make a “thankful list,” or even like one family, have Thankful Thursdays on which every family member points out a blessing.

But, no one knows that you’re thankful for them or something they do if you don’t say it! And that’s where Act Gracious comes in.

Teach your kids to write a thank you note to someone who aligns with their thankful list. Maybe it’s a teacher who gave extra minutes at recess. Maybe it’s the author of a favorite book. The cookie baker at the grocery store. The school crossing guard. A coach, music teacher, or a scout leader.

With a little help, kids begin to realize there is a real person behind everyone and everything they enjoy during their days. FunProperlyDone.com has a selection of blank thank you cards you can keep on hand for any occasion. Write a note a week during November to create a habit—and a practice—of showing gratitude.

During Thanksgiving Day itself, kids can show what they appreciate in the people around them. Our Baskets of Thanks cornucopia can be used as a place card, or just a “thank you for coming” favor. Write things you appreciate about a person on the back of each vegetable, and fill the cornucopia with thoughts of gratitude.

Exhibit gratitude

The best lesson, of course, is to be an example of gratitude every day. Parents can do this by simply saying “thank you” to a clerk at the store, and by recognizing the small services people do in their everyday jobs. Another lesson is to say why you’re leaving a tip at a restaurant; giving a specific reason is a good lesson for your child—and a great note for a waiter to receive.

Since Thanksgiving Dinner is a special meal in and of itself, it’s perfectly suited for teaching good manners beyond “thank you.” Have some fun by turning Thanksgiving into your family’s own Etiquette Dinner. It’s the ideal opportunity to teach kids about how to politely greet guests, use proper place settings, put a napkin on their laps, hold out a chair for someone, etc.

The Etiquette Party invitation at FunProperlyDone.com helps make it a formal affair. But even if you don’t use etiquette as a theme, use the opportunity for kids to practice their best manners. And when you see them do it, Think Grateful and Act Gracious yourself! Award the good-mannered one with an Etiquette sticker you can find at FunProperlyDone.com. They’re a fun way to reward family members of any age for saying their pleases and thank you’s.

You can find all of the Thanksgiving and thanks-sharing products here at www.funproperlydone.com.