Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I get to enjoy a cozy fire and hot cocoa, yummy foods, gathering of family, and warm feelings of being richly blessed. During this time of year, thankfulness seems to flow much more easily. It is our time to look about us and count those blessings bestowed throughout the year and praise God for every good thing we have, no matter how little it may be. We are READY and expecting to give thanks.
All good things come from the Lord and He rightly deserves all thanksgiving. But are we filled with the same thankfulness in early August or run of the mill late January? And how does our gratitude express itself in our daily lives and interactions with one another? Thankfulness is more than a feeling, it is an attitude and a character trait that we must work to develop and retain beyond the warm coziness of late Fall. It should translate into our lives as kindness, hospitality, selfless giving, and contentment (that’s a hard one!).
Our children are not born thankful creatures. They are selfish little beings (as we were also) and must learn to humble themselves into gratitude. We are in a special circumstance as homeschooling parents to consistently work on the development of thankfulness in our children. We must point them always toward God as the originator of all good things. But, we must also teach them to show this grateful attitude in little kindnesses to each other every day.
Attempting to teach gratitude to my own children, we have made it a habit to consistently write cards and thank-you notes. A note of thanks, no matter how simple, will in turn reward the giver and the receiver. It is giving a gift back to the person who has given to you. It also develops in you the wonderful habit of giving thanks. And giving thanks is so much MORE than just feeling thankful. It is developing the character traits of kindness, thoughtfulness, and gratitude all at once. Of course, we don’t receive gifts everyday. So, our thank-you notes are for more than just gift giving. We express thanks for a kind deed, friendship, hospitality, help given, a playdate, a shared treat, and much more.
We have successfully entwined the habit of writing thank-you notes into our overall writing curriculum. As a double-fold bonus, it also helps the children with recognizing when thanksgiving is due and expressing that gratitude in writing. To aid you in adding thank-you notes to your lessons, Michael and I have put together a package on how to simply write a thank-you letter along with some beautiful stationary for various occasions. You will find Thank You Letters in our brand-new HMHS Store. We hope they will aid you in adding this habit in your own home and begin to develop a grateful attitude in your children.
To discuss gratitude, writing, or any other homeschooling topic, please visit our HMHS Discussion Forum.
