Teach your children (and you) Thankfulness with a Gratitude Jar
If you’re like me, it has always been a struggle to help your kids learn to appreciate the blessings they’ve received. If only the gratitude gene was easily passed down from parent to child! Are you wanting to teach your children how to be more grateful?
I’ve come to realize though, that it all starts with me. Am I showing my kids gratitude for them and what good they do everyday? Maybe you’re like me, and you need to find ways to appreciate your own children and see more of the good they do.
Years ago, our family started using a Gratitude Jar to help each other truly see the good acts each of us do everyday. It’s easy to do and a great way to help keep a focus on gratitude in your home.
You can definitely do this around Thanksgiving or any other time during the year that your family needs to refocus on the good. Here’s what to do:
Get a Jar or bowl or bucket. We like to use mason jars so we can see our progress growing.
Find something to fill it with. We’ve used marbles or puff balls before, but some people have used candy too. (We just knew we’d eat it all if we did that.)
Plan a reward for when the jar is full. Maybe a family movie night (my kids love that.) Or a trip to the park or maybe an item the family would enjoy together.
Place the jar on the counter. Explain to your family that every time you see each other do something good you will place a marble in the jar.
Then watch as your family tries to do good things and reward them for it.
My son Michael putting a puff ball into our Gratitude Jar
With our Gratitude Marble Jar, we found our kids would be nicer to each other. Sometimes they would go the extra mile with their chores, and even point out to my husband and I what someone had done nice to them. Our family would strive to be kinder to each other because of it.
I really liked doing this activity because it forced me to see the good in my kids. I wanted them to succeed and fill the jar, but I found that it would only work if I would see the good they did and call it out. It all starts with me!
It helped me remember that my kids really do good things and that I need to look for that good. Too often, I’ve been more focused on what my kids were doing wrong; this activity helped me redirect my attention to what they’re doing right instead. Gratitude for those kind acts they would do then filled my heart. Which in turn filled our home with more Gratitude.
Sisters trying to put brother to bed (but really keeping him up.) I see the good.
“We so easily forget that we came into life with nothing. Whatever we get soon seems our natural right, not a gift. And we forget the giver. Then our gaze shifts from what we have been given to what we don’t have yet.”
Other ways to increase your Gratitude:
