It’s been a busy month. A. VERY. BUSY. MONTH. But despite all the craziness I still wanted to remind my kidlets (and myself) to be grateful. But I needed a quick, last-minute gratitude idea.
So as I often do in a pinch, I turned to Pinterest. I found endless ideas on teaching thankfulness to kids–Gratitude Trees, Gratitude Turkeys, Gratitude Jars, Gratitude Garlands, Handmade Gratitude Chalk Boards, and even Gratitude Rolls (yes, like yummy homemade rolls with notes of gratitude inside). These are all wonderful ideas, but I did NOT have time for any of these. Sometimes real life takes over all of my good intentions.
There’s got to be another way. So I brainstormed some more and actually came up with my own solution. I remembered my huge roll of wrapping paper in my basement. (I like wrapping paper ideas . . . like THIS ONE) And I created a Gratitude Wall.
All I had to do was slap a big chunk of this on the wall, leave some markers nearby, and let me kidlets have at it.
We had a short Family Home Evening lesson (once a week My Man and I try to teach our kids a few good things) to go with it in order to get the wheels of gratitude turning. I had everyone close their eyes for a few minutes and think about all the things they were thankful for. Then we talked about their thoughts a little. I told them our goal was to FILL UP THE ENTIRE WALL OF PAPER before Thanksgiving Day. They could write whatever they wanted. The only rule was to keep the words and phrases normal-sized so we’d have lots of room for many things. They loved that idea and started right away.
This is a great last-minute gratitude lesson. It would also be a fun thing to do for your guests to do while waiting for the turkey on Thanksgiving Day.
P.S. I’m thankful for quick and easy ideas.
Happy Last-Minute Thanksgiving.
