teaching gratitude....

Some lessons are hard to teach. 

To really give these gifts to a child you have to live them. 

This is a great idea to help live gratitude daily within a family! 

I originally stole the idea from Martha Stewart (don't most good ideas come from her) and then Pinterest (where the rest of the good ideas come from). But the prompt was "i love you because..." which implies that love is conditional based on behavior or actions. Not the message I was looking for. 

You just frame a pretty piece of paper along with a prompt that you can hand write or print off in a funky font. I used "today I am thankful for...". 

You need a glass marker (Vis a Vis) or a dry erase (but dry erase mandates using a wet napkin then a dry one). 

Each day at breakfast we take a minute and take turns thinking of what we are thankful for. Mom and Dad get a turn too and so do I. Even though my little one is just 2 - she gets it. And I love that while her thankfuls are usually for her balloon or her stickers, mom and dad's are more global. This demonstrates in a very real and non preachy way that it is good to be grateful for family but some days it is equally important that we are grateful for a chocolate cookie. 

I also love the way this routine makes us think of good things at the beginning of the day. It doesn't take long and it includes the whole family. 

Because I chose paper that matches the kitchen colors and made it kinda pretty, mom doesn't mind keeping it out in the area where we all pass by it many times a day. 

This is one way to show appreciations, how do you teach this lesson?? 

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