November's Here! The Attitude of Gratitude Project Begins

My kids are living the good life:  a closet full of clothes, a beautiful home, three square meals a day (or multiple bottles, depending on the kid), a mind-blowing number of toys, extended family and friends that dote on them, and everything else.  Compared to other eras, people from some countries, and people from some areas in our own country, we live like royalty.  I've learned so much in the past eight years about the power of being grateful, and therefore, my kiddos get many a lesson on it.  If you see yucky behavior from someone, chances are a seed of unthankfulness played a part in it at some point.  So I look for ways to give my kids perspective, a thankful perspective.  On the flipside, I hope to prevent them from falling down the slippery slope of entitlement.

I read somewhere that one of the best things you can do for your child is this:  as soon as they're able, physically and emotionally, to perform a task, stop doing it for them.  Our hope is that they'll one day be competent, nay, extraordinary adults.  Theoretically, I give my firm head nod of affirmation to this ideal.  In real life it's harder, because, frankly, sometimes I'm in a hurry, and my almost four-year-old takes years to accomplish some tasks.  It's the nature of the preschooler.  Teaching thankfulness has to do with teaching responsibility, and while it's not always easy, it's not optional for me.

But not all lessons have to be so tough.  Life is fun!  Having character and doing what's right is rewarding, and if we can find that spoonful of sugar to help our parenting efforts go down, all the better.  So we've come up with the Attitude of Gratitude Project (If it rhymes, Levi loves it.).  I've always loved that the Thanksgiving holiday is this beautifully prepackaged, and fun, opportunity to talk about gratitude.  Fun is the language of preschoolers.  They understand fun.  Don't we all?  So rather than just build up the one day, we've decided around here to capitalize on it.  November will be a whole month full of gratitude. 

Our little project is simple.  Every day, we will think of someone we're glad is in our lives, then we'll do something fun on paper to let them know.  On Thanksgiving week, we'll send them out.  Hey, I said it was simple.  But for me, I'm going to have a chunk of time every day in which Levi and I can talk about thankfulness, why it's good, what happens when we're not grateful, and the reality that not everyone has what we have.  He'll be doing crafty stuff that he loves, and meanwhile, we'll get to have some great discussion.  We'll top it off with a day of turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, pies, the Sweet Potato Pie Bowl, and revelry galore.  Nothing like a party to drive a lesson home and show you just how much you have to celebrate.