The Mom Connection- On Being Thankful







I am teaming up this week with  Two in Diapers and Naptime Review for The Mom Connection!

Check out this week's fabulous panel of moms!

We are always wondering how other moms handle certain issues or dilemmas,
so each week we are going to tackle the questions of motherhood.

December 1st we will discuss:

How do you prepare for the holiday season with your children?

If you have some thoughts or advice on next week's topic please email
We would love for you to be part of The Mom Connection!





Now on to this week's topic!
How do you teach your children to be thankful?

Here is what a few of us had to say:

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Welcome! I'm Julie over at Naptime Review. I am a mom of 2 wild, crazy and beautiful girls. My oldest is almost 4 and my baby is 1. This is how teach my children to be thankful:



This is something I try to model and show my girls daily. I think it is very important to be thankful to other's and especially God.  I model this through prayer, thank you notes, phone calls and other acts of kindness.



This Thanksgiving, I created a "Thankful Cornucopia."  We all sat around the table and wrote things we were thankful for and stuffed them into the centerpiece. It was a simple family activity that modeled thankfulness. Click here if you'd like to see our beautiful centerpiece.



Hopefully by modeling thankfulness and constantly thanking God for all the blessings he has given us, they too will be thankful. The baby already says, "thank you," and it warms my heart.


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Hi! I'm Cassie
from Two In Diapers, and I'm a mommy to three sweet babies, ages 4, 3, and 18 months. This is how I teach my children to be thankful:

 
Thankfulness is so very important to me! I feel that it's necessary to teach right from the very beginning of life! Starting in my littles' babyhood, whenever anyone gives them something or compliments them, we tell them, "say thank-you" in a sing-song voice, even knowing that they are far too young to actually say those words. Before we know it, however, they are mimicking that exact same sing-song voice, "tee-koo" in just the right situations, which lets me know that they understand. While thanksgiving in life is so much larger than just the proper manners, I think it's important to  teach from the start that they have been blessed by someone else in some form and should be thankful for it.



Now that my babes are getting older, teaching them to be thankful has become a priority of mine. As with many things in parenting, I try to teach through modeling. Little Bentley {age 3} has been asking me constantly lately why I said
"thank-you" to someone. I've been taking that opportunity to explain to
him that it's because that person bagged up my groceries, opened the
door for us or dropped off our mail, and for that I'm thankful. I'm constantly saying little things like, "I think your friends were so nice to share all their toys with us today" after a playdate, and even, "I'm so thankful that the man came over to fix the... today?". I don't say these things to go overboard, but instead to try to show my littles that we should all be genuinely thankful for people. I feel that the more they hear it from me, the more aware they will be of others and the gifts they are given daily.



In the same way, I also try to remind my kids to be thankful to God for all that he's given us.


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My name is Courtney from The Chirping Moms. I am a mom of two little girls: Maggie (2) & Alexandra (1). This is how I teach my children to be thankful: Through giving. 



 It's not easy to teach kids to be thankful when they
are very little. I started really trying to teach Maggie the past week, using
Hurricane Sandy. It was a very scary storm for us. She's old enough to get that
the storm knocked a lot of trees down in our neighborhood, our park is closed
& we had no power for a while. I explained to her that we have to be
"thankful" that we were not hurt & our house & all of our
special things are still ok. I explained a lot of kids lost all of their toys
& books & that we should send some of ours. I had Maggie sort through
her books & pick out some that we could send in our package to a family we
are helping to "adopt".
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My name is Heather Lynne from Raising Memories. I am a mom of 2 children,
aged 3 and 6 and my blog is all about sharing fun things parents can do with
and for their kids, while making memories of this great time we have to raise
our children! Here are 2 ways I teach my children to be thankful
:

Being thankful is something my husband and I teach more than just at
thanksgiving- we work on this every day! We say family prayers, blessings on
the food at mealtimes, and our kids say personal prayers. We do all of these
every day, and the pattern of prayer that we teach always begins by thanking God
for our blessings, and we try to have our girls think of a few specific things
from their day or life that they’re grateful for. Another way we try to get
them thinking about being thankful is that every day at the dinner table, we ask
each person what their “high” was for the day. (This is the high point, or
their favorite thing that happened that day) We also allow them to share their
“low” which is a good opportunity for us to find out what’s on their minds, what
might be bothering them, or what difficult things they may be facing while
they’re away from us at school- or even when they’re at home with us- it might
help us know how we can do better! 

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My name is Jenni from The Good Long Road.
I am a mom of 2 boys nicknamed Wild Thing (3 yo) and Caterpillar (15 months) on
the blog because of their favorite books. This month we are focusing on
gratitude. This is how:



In November, inspired by the 21 Days of Gratitude Family Challenge (started by
Inspired by Family Magazine), I decided to concentrate on a daily gratitude
practice for Wild Thing. We do this by making Thank You Post Cards each day for
one person. 
Sometimes, he will mention a toy he is thankful for instead, so then we connect
that toy to the person who gave him the toy and make the post card for them. He
loves decorating the blank post cards (that are pre-stamped, which we got from
the Post Office). He learns gratitude and some early reading/literacy skills as
well. Win. Win.



As a family, we also started focusing more this month on Family Dinners -
completely unplugged. These meals offer opportunities for gratitude for the
goodness we have in our lives and remind us to be thankful for one another.



Finally, modeling for our children might be the most effective way to teach
them to be thankful. I try to take note of my own behavior. Am I
thankful/appreciative toward others on a daily basis? Do I thank my husband for
all that he does for our family? Do I thank the boys when they listen, clean
up, help out? Teaching thankfulness begins with being thankful.
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Your Turn:
How do YOU teach your children to be thankful?
Do you have any tips or advice?
Leave us a comment.
Love to hear from you!

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Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment- I love reading them! :)
~Heather Lynne