Yesterday, I gave some suggestions for ways to cultivate gratitude in your children’s hearts in Encouraging Thankfulness: Part 1. Here are a few more ideas to try.

Dear God

A joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful. ~Book of Common Prayer (1892)

Give your child a small spiral notebook or special journal in which to write prayers. Encourage her to express gratitude and thanksgiving as part of each prayer she writes. She can thank God for:

• Creation. I’m thankful for crisp snow, pink sunsets, autumn colors, grass and flowers, giraffes and snapping turtles.
• Provision. Thank You for our house, food, clothing, toys, books, pets, family and friends; for Daddy’s job; that Mom can stay home and teach us; for hot water, warm blankets, and comfortable beds.
• Gifts and talents. Thank You that I’m musical, athletic, smart. I’m a talented photographer. I’m good at building Legos, mowing the grass, baking. I know how to raise goats and plant a garden. I’m kind, loyal, faithful. I’m a hard worker. I can dance. I excel at computers, math, science. I love reading, writing, drawing, building with my hands.

Every day, help her look for ways to be thankful for big and little things. Find more ideas for keeping a Gratitude Journal.

Do Unto Others

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. ~William Arthur Ward

Invite your children to make a list of things they can do to express gratitude to someone who has been kind to them or to show kindness to someone who needs it. Once the list is complete, have them act on at least one of them. Their list can include things like:

• Bake cookies.
• Make a handmade card.
• Mow the neighbor’s lawn.
• Obey the first time Mom or Dad askes me to do something.
• Do a favor without being asked.
• Do one of my brother’s chores just because.
• Invite Grandma over and make breakfast for her.
• Write a poem for my auntie because she’s so kind to me.
• Sponsor a child because I’m thankful I have a family.
• Volunteer at a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, or food bank because I’m thankful I have food and a roof over my head.
• Fill a Christmas shoebox for a child who doesn’t have toys and treats, because I’m blessed to have so much.
• Be kind to someone who doesn’t deserve it because God does that for me.

Operation Beautiful

All that we behold is full of blessings. ~William Wordsworth

Gratitude doesn’t always mean saying “thank you.” Simply stepping out of self-centeredness and considering others’ needs and feelings is a form of gratitude, too.

Your child can make people smile or feel better about themselves by placing a sticky note somewhere random. Write uplifting thoughts, kind words, and encouraging quotes. I love Operation Beautiful for this!

Finally, don’t just save gratitude for Thanksgiving. Help your children look for ways throughout the year to express thanks, turning the focus outward. Everyone will be the better for it.

It’s Thanksgiving week. Around the country, we’re picking up our turkeys, baking pies, chopping aromatic vegetables for stuffing, and setting our prettiest table.

Even still, it’s hard to forget that we’re about to careen around the corner and crash right into December—that most commercial wonderful time of the year.

Do you feel like you’re walking on the edge of a knife, trying to maintain a thankful spirit in your home during the season of the “gimmees”?

You can cultivate an attitude of gratitude in your children, and Thanksgiving week is a great time to start. When the kids begin squabbling, acting selfish, or expressing entitlement, help them do a 180 and refocus, using one of these activities as a springboard.

Thank You For…

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~Marcel Proust

Writing a note of appreciation for a gift received seems obvious, but it doesn’t have to stop there. Who has made an impact on your children’s lives? Provide stationery and writing tools and have your kids think of deeper reasons they can express their thanks.

• Dad. Thank him for making you feel safe and loved, for working hard for your family, for playing football in the yard, for showing you how to fix a flat on your bike, for teaching you about God, for playing Monopoly with you.
• Mom. Thank her for being your teacher, for driving you to all your activities, for cooking tasty meals for your family, for showing you how to bake a chocolate cake, for helping you become kind and compassionate, for setting a good example.
• Grandparents. Thank them for things you often take for granted, such as coming to your soccer games or school performances. Thank them for holding a special place in your life, for encouraging, supporting, and loving you.
• Sunday school teacher. Thank her for caring about you, for teaching you about Jesus, for bringing donuts each week.
• Newspaper deliverer or postman. Thank him for delivering your mail or paper every day, no matter how hot or cold or rainy or snowy. Thank him for being a dependable worker.
• Pet. Thank your dog or cat for being faithful, friendly, loyal; for being a playmate; for providing companionship, entertainment, and smiles.

It’s Been Said

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Encourage your children to copy favorite quotes about gratitude and thanksgiving and pin them to a wall or bulletin board in their room. For starters, find gratitude quotes here and here. Then, have your kids try one of these ideas:

• Copy each saying using neatest penmanship.
• Write the quote on fancy paper using calligraphy or italic handwriting.
• Type it on the computer, choose an appropriate font, enlarge the text to fill the page, and print it on pretty paper.

Count Your Blessings

Who does not thank for little will not thank for much. ~Estonian Proverb

Mount a large sheet of posterboard on the wall of your kitchen or family room, and keep a jar of colored markers nearby. Encourage your children to write things they’re thankful for, no matter how small.  Pre-writers can simply draw pictures on the posterboard.

Alternatively, make a stack of sticky notes available on which they can record their words of gratitude. Provide a centralized spot for these thankful thoughts, or simply let the kids pepper the house with notes. 

. . . . .

Gratitude is an amazing thing. It’s good for our health and well-being; it helps us choose contentment over want, self-centeredness, and entitlement; and it makes us easier to please. We can indeed be purposeful about helping our kids ditch their “me” mentality and become more others-focused.

Tomorrow I’ll share more ideas in Encouraging Thankfulness: Part 2.

~Kim

Today’s lesson is on compound words. A compound word  is formed by combining two words together to make one new word.

It’s simple, really. Thanks + giving = Thanksgiving

Now, you try it.

Thanks + giving = Thankgivening

Um, no.

Let’s try another one, shall we?

Thanks + giving = Tanksgiven

*Sigh* — I give up.

. . . . .

Stop by every 1st, 3rd, and 5th Wednesday for a peek into the world of spelling, punctuation, or grammar gone wrong!

Photos used by permission of Jen at CakeWrecks

The word “writing” can strike fear in young hearts because children tend to associate it with lengthy and often-painful tasks such as essays and stories.

But as I’ve frequently shared here on my blog, writing can truly be as simple as making lists, playing word games, or publishing a story as a craft. By offering your children a varied writing diet, they learn to enjoy appetizers and desserts along with the main meal.

One way to inspire writing is through focused journals such as a diary of a vacation, a memory book about a special friend or family member, or reflections on a season or holiday. Today, I’d like to encourage you and your family to focus your journaling on 30 days of gratitude. 

Keeping a Gratitude Journal

Does your home more closely resemble Grumbletown? Is everyone wearing you down with their bickering and squabbling? Are tempers flaring? Do you find yourself long on complaints and short on compliments?

Sounds like you or your children may be in need of an attitude makeover, and November—this most “thankful” of months—makes a perfect time to cultivate gratitude in your family.

Many people (myself included) are taking the opportunity to journal every day about the things we’re thankful for. These journalings go by different names, but they all serve the same purpose: To count our blessings and record them. It’s a way to purposefully acknowledge our gratitude for those things, both large and small.

Plan Your Journal

When I say “journal,” don’t break into a cold sweat on me, OK? For this little project, I’m only asking for a sentence (or two or three).

Are you breathing easier now? Good. Then let’s talk about how to actually do this!

First, everyone needs to decide where and how to record their thoughts. Each person needs an outlet—and the choices are many! 

• Notebook. Keep a daily journal in a something as elegant as a leather diary or as simple as a spiral notebook.
• Record your journal online, if you blog.
• Scribble your thanks on scraps of paper and store them in a mason jar or small box.

It’s very possible that you might have four family members journaling their thankful thoughts in four different ways. Yay for diversity!

Next, choose a name for your Thanksgiving gratitude project. Here are a few ideas:

• Gratitude Journal
• 30 Days of Gratitude
• Thankful Project
• My Thankful Box
• I Am Thankful

Count Your Blessings

Ponder a bit. What makes you thankful? At first, the obvious will pop into your minds: Food, family, friends, faith. But encourage your children to look for hidden, unexpected, or less obvious things too, such as the smell of clean hair, hugs from Nana, a warm bed, a kind deed.

Write Them Down

Younger children can write one thing every day. Older children and adults can write five things you’re grateful for. Whether each note is brief or lengthy, it should be personally meaningful.

Make It Personal

If you wish, you and your children can make your journal or box even more personal by including quotations, Bible verses, or photographs.

• Quotations about gratitude
• Bible verses about gratitude

Journal Faithfully

Keep your gratitude journals for the entire month of November—or at least through Thanksgiving. As a special Thanksgiving Day activity, invite each family member to share one or two excerpts from their journals.

With everyone’s hearts and minds turned toward giving thanks and recording blessings, I know that renewed attitudes and more pleasant temperaments will be the refreshing outcome.

I hope you’ll join me! Will you take the Gratitude Challenge? Leave a comment to let me know.

For the Beauty of the Earth

For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower,
sun and moon, and stars of light;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love,
brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth and friends above,
for all gentle thoughts and mild;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

For thyself, best Gift Divine,
to the world so freely given,
for that great, great love of thine,
peace on earth, and joy in heaven: 
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

Happy Thanksgiving from Writeshop!

—Kim

Photo by Ecstaticist / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Last year at this time, I showed you how to create a Thanksgiving acrostic poem. Here’s a variation that helps your kids focus on reasons to be thankful.

When you’re scrambling around the kitchen on Thanksgiving Day and the children are underfoot, set them down at the kitchen table with this activity.

Directions

Write the words I AM THANKFUL vertically on a sheet of lined paper. Using each of the letters, make an acrostic

1. Each line can be one word, a phrase, or a sentence. There’s no right or wrong, as you can see from the examples below.
2. If children are having trouble thinking of words, use tools like magazines, catalogs, a thesaurus, or word lists to prompt ideas.
3. Poems can be left-aligned or centered.
4. Afterwards, illustrate your acrostics or decorate the page with photos cut from a magazine.

Gratitude

I want to thank God for

A ll His wonderful blessings, like His
M ercy and grace and compassion. For simple things like

T ea with toast. For big things like
H ope in a dark world. For
A warm, cozy home filled with love. For
N ine fun cousins! For
K eeping me safe. For
F riends that are closer than brothers. I want to always lift
U p praise to You with a thankful heart, knowing how much You
L ove me.

A Thankful Heart

I am thankful for . . .

A ll my clothes and toys . . .
M y mom, dad, and brothers . . .

T rue friends . . .
H ome and health . . .
A back yard to run and play . . .
N ana and Papa . . .
K nowing God loves me . . .
F ood on our table . . .
U ncles, aunts, and cousins . . .
L iving in a free country.

I Am Thankful

I am thankful for

A pples and pears
M y red hair

T oys
H ot dogs
A irplanes and cars
N ew crayons
K ittens and puppies
F lowers and stars
U nited States of America
L egos

Photo of praying girl courtesy of StockXchng.com

Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away, making this a great time to engage your kids in some holiday writing, whether stories, journals, essays, or reports. Here are some topic ideas you can suggest to get things rolling:

• Think of someone you know who might be spending Thanksgiving alone. Write a letter inviting them to dinner at your house. Include three reasons why you want them to come.
• Draw a picture of a Thanksgiving feast. Include your favorite foods. Next, use your five senses to describe each food, including appearance, taste, smell, and textures.
• Write an essay explaining what it means to be thankful.
• Think of 3-4 things you and your family are most grateful for. Explain why.
• Describe what you know about the first Thanksgiving.
• Tell about some of your Thanksgiving traditions. What role does each member of the family play?
• Explain why you love Thanksgiving. Are there any parts of the holiday you don’t enjoy?
• Would a turkey make a good pet? Why or why not? Use facts and opinions to explain your reasons.
• Explain how to grow a pumpkin.
• Bake a pumpkin pie. Ask someone to take photos of you along the way. Write an instruction manual explaining the process, using the photos to illustrate each step.
• Write a Thanksgiving story from a turkey’s point of view.
• Describe the perfect Thanksgiving.

Need more writing activities for Thanksgiving or fall? Check out our holiday and seasonal ideas!

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.

A word bank is a place where a student can keep written words he’s learned or collected so that he can refer to them as needed. Useful for students of all ages, word banks serve several purposes:

• A storage place for writing ideas when the child is writing about a particular topic. He can gather from a word bank of themed words to create a story or poem.
• A vocabulary-development tool.
• A spelling resource he can go to during writing or editing.
• Inspiration!

Using Holiday-themed Word Banks

With fall in the air and Thanksgiving just around the corner, now’s the time to encourage your children to write seasonal and holiday-themed stories, poems, reports, and acrostics. As fun as this sounds, when your kiddos (old or young!) can’t think of what to write about, they often freeze in frustration. 

Helping them draw from a rich word bank that’s chock-full of seasonal ideas can spark and motivate even the most reluctant writer. Here are two word banks perfect for this favorite time of year!

Autumn Word Bank

autumn, fall, season, September, October, November, leaves, colors, brown, gold, yellow, red, orange, black, gray, smoke, bonfire, burning leaves, crunching, jumping, tossing, raking, leaf pile, path, trail, hike, meander, woods, forest, orchard, tree, maple, oak, branches, corn maze, cornstalks, Indian corn, squirrel, chipmunk, blue jay, brisk, chill, cold, icy, frost, breath, pumpkin patch, hay, bale, pumpkin carving, nuts, chestnuts, cinnamon, pumpkins, apples, spicy, cider, hot cocoa, coffee, soup, stew, chili, fire, warm, roaring, crackling, inviting, cozy, crisp, blustery, welcoming, sights, sounds, smells, deep blue sky, clouds, rain, wind, storm, breeze, flannel, denim, corduroy, wool, fleece

Thanksgiving Word Bank

holiday, Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, Mayflower, Plymouth, Indians, memories, grandparents, family, friends, football, dinner, ham, turkey, gravy, corn, pumpkin pie, crust, coffee, cream, sausage, stuffing, muffins, cornbread, rolls, potatoes, yams, green beans, vegetables, apples, cranberries, flaky, whipped, mashed, creamy, buttery, candied, sweet, rich, savory, golden, glazed, crisp, baking, roasting, cooking, steaming, serving, helping, sharing, table, platter, china, silver, tablecloth, lace, linen, candles, cornucopia, gourds, aroma, warm, food, faith, prayer, plenty, thankful, blessing, welcome, gathering, together, November, Thursday, parade

Making Your Own Themed Word Banks

When giving a writing assignment, have your student use prepared word banks such as the two above, or work alongside him as he creates his own. Here’s one idea:

Brainstorm with your child to assemble a fall word bank. Look at a book, magazine, or website containing colorful images of autumn or Thanksgiving. Ask questions to stimulate thought, such as:

• What do you see on this page that makes you think of fall?
• Name some fall colors.
• How do you think that icy windowpane feels?
• In this picture, what fall activity is the family involved in?

As you and your child think of autumn-related words, add them to your word bank. Older children can use a thesaurus later on to look up synonyms for some of their words, thus broadening their writing vocabulary.

Find more Thanksgiving writing activities here and here—great ways to apply these new word bank ideas!

Copyright 2009 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

. . . . .

Word banks are such great tools for helping kids expand their writing vocabulary, which is why we’ve included 17 exhaustive word lists in our WriteShop I and WriteShop II student books—lists such as texture words, personification, and emotions.

And in each of our WriteShop Primary books, younger children are encouraged to make Portable Word Banks, including season words, color words, and spelling words.

Looking for a few last-minute writing activities to occupy your antsy children? Try some of these!

• List. Make a list of things you’re thankful for.
• Thank-you note. Think of a special person in your life. Write a thank-you letter and tell him or her why you value your relationship.
• Silly story. Pretend you are a turkey who does not want to end up on someone’s Thanksgiving table. Write a plan for how to escape.
• Sensory description. At first glance, a leaf is just a leaf. But when you study it closely, you can discover many small details that make it one-of-a-kind. Choose a colorful autumn leaf and brainstorm a list of phrases or sentences describing its unique features—including colors, shape, size, texture, veins, blemishes, or spots. Older students can then write a paragraph describing their leaf.
• Instruction manual. Write a paragraph explaining a simple process, such as how to make mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, or pumpkin pie. If possible, have someone take pictures of you during each step of preparing the food so you can decorate the pages with photos.

2008 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

Looking for a holiday activity? Divert your kids with a Thanksgiving acrostic poem!

1. Write the word THANKSGIVING vertically on a sheet of lined paper. Using each of the letters, make a fun acrostic.
2. Each line can be one word, a phrase, or a sentence. See how creative you can be!
3. Poems can be left-aligned or centered.
4. Afterwards, illustrate your acrostics or decorate the page with photos cut from a magazine.

I’ll start you off with a couple of examples.

First Thanksgiving

Thanking the Lord
Honoring Him
Abundant blessings
Needs met
Kneeling Pilgrims
Squanto’s help
Gifts of food
Indian corn
Venison
Indeed we are blessed
Neighbors have shared 
God has provided

Thanksgiving at Home

T urkey time (I love the dark meat best!)
H oping the weather will turn cold
A untie’s apple pie—the best!
N ine plates around the table
K eeping family traditions
S tuffing my tummy with—what else?—stuffing!
G iving thanks for my family
I nviting our neighbor so he won’t be lonely
V egetables that I love (corn and green beans—yum!)
I think I am about to burst!
N aps for babies (and tired grandparents!)
G ames and laughter after dinner