By: Christy Laverty
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
― Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
It is so important to make gratitude a daily practice. Practicing gratitude helps us recognize what is good and abundant in our lives. While we often feel recognizing the big blessings in our lives is important, we can sometimes forget to also highlight the small, ordinary moments. It is in those ordinary moments that I often find the most beauty. It is those moments that I am most grateful for. For example, today I was grateful to be able to go on a field trip with my daughter’s grade three class. It was so special to be able to spend those school hours talking, walking and sharing with my daughter. I am grateful for the special moments when we were able to walk, holding hands and just talk.
One of the things I feel is most important is helping my children recognize the importance of practicing gratitude every day. It can be hard for children sometimes. I have one child who is more of a glass half empty girl, rather than a glass half full girl, and I want to make sure both my girls learn to see all the good in their lives every single day.
Here are a few things we can all do to help our children learn to practice gratitude.
- Set a Good Example
Let’s face it, our children learn how to be the best people they can be by watching how we live our lives. It is our job as parents to show our kids how it is done. So, with that in mind you can teach your kids to practice gratitude by doing it yourself. Every day make sure your children know what you are grateful for; tell them, show them, express to them all that you are grateful for.
- Gratitude Journals
This gives children the chance to express their gratitude on their own terms. Every night before going to bed kids can write or even draw what they are grateful for. They can write about or draw about what was great about the day; what was the best part of the day, what was fun, what was exciting. It can be simple things like, playing with their friends at recess, seeing mom and dad at school pick up time, getting a great book at the library. Let them do it on their own and that will help them make it their own routine.
- Gratitude Jar
This can be a fun thing for the whole family. There can be two ways to do this. First, everyone can write down what they are grateful for on a slip of paper and drop it into the gratitude jar. At the end of the week, or even month, you can sit down as a family and read back all the things you were grateful for! It is a great way to remember all that is good in your lives.
Second, you could write down some random gratitude messages on small pieces of paper and drop them into the gratitude jar. Here are just a few examples…Be grateful for the green grass, Let the warmth of the sun shine down on your face and warm your heart today, Be grateful, you are awesome. Every day everyone in the family can pick out a gratitude message for the day to help them get their daily gratitude practice kick-started for the day.
- Give Thanks
Practicing gratitude can be as simple as saying thank you. Part of expressing gratitude is recognizing the greatness and blessings in your life right now and being thankful. Just say THANK YOU. It is a small gesture that goes a long way.
- Say It Out Loud
This is a practice everyone in the family can do. This would work really well at the dinner table. Everyone takes a turn saying at least one thing they are grateful for about that day! It helps to spread the joy of gratitude around!
There are many ways you can help your children learn to live with gratitude every single day. It is all about making it a daily practice. The path to true joy is through gratitude. When you recognize all the great things in your life, you put yourself on the path to even more blessings and abundance.
Don’t forget you can find my ramblings and writings at a few other places, including my two blogs. ChristyaLaverty.blogspot.com and frecklesthemom.blogspot.com
Latest posts by Christy (see all)
- Three Simple Steps to Positivity - June 23, 2014
- Kids and a Daily Gratitude Practice - May 14, 2014
- Learning To Live A More Grateful Life - April 2, 2014
Elizabeth L says
I really love the idea of the gratitude Jar! It seems like a fun and easy way to get the whole family in on it.
Christy says
I think it is so important to make these gratitude teaching moments fun for kids. The goal is to get children to make it something they do every day but more importantly that they WANT to do every day! Thanks for reading my post and sharing your comment.
Kelly @ City Mom says
Wow! These are fantastic tips!! And something that I bet not a lot of people think about doing. Every evening at dinner we play “How was your day?” We all answer how I day was, then take turns sharing what we’re most thankful for! 🙂
Christy says
I love that you play “How was your day?” at dinner. Sitting around the dinner table sharing great moments in your day is a great way to connect as a family and express what you are thankful for! Thanks for sharing!
Dawn says
What a lovely post, I think this is good advice for all families to live by. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Christy says
Thanks Dawn. I am so glad you liked the post. Living with gratitude and a daily practice is so important.
Christine says
Oh! I LOVE this post! Thank you for sharing and for reminding parents how important it is to live by example. I’ve been noticing a lot of kids who are lacking in this department…where the time is not taken to teach gratitude, etc. Thank you for brightening up my day.
Christy says
You are right Christine. Leading by example is so important and I truly believe we all need to do more of it! I think sometimes life gets in the way and we forget that we have little ones watching our every move. All we really need to do is slow down and take a minute to really think about our actions every day. Thanks for reading my post!
Jenna Em says
Great ideas to teach kids about gratitude! In my son’s classroom, each child has a “gratitude cup”, and other students fill it with messages of thanks. Once the cup is full, the child earns a small reward. My son took delight in reading the heart-felt notes that his classmates had written him.
Christy says
I truly believe it is so important to teach kids about gratitude and kindness. I love the gratitude cup idea! Thanks for sharing Jenna