Teaching Your Kids To Be Grateful This Thanksgiving

Sue Kirchner is a family fun coach and weekly contributor to Patch.com. She created ChocolateCakeClub.com and ChocolateCakeMoments.com both sites dedicated to helping busy families have more fun together. Sue and her family fun ideas have been featured on TV, newspapers, magazines, and blogs. 

Thanksgiving is all about family and giving thanks, right? Well, maybe eating, too. While we have the family and the eating part down pat, we try a variety of activities to help our kids develop more of an attitude of gratitude. Here are some ideas we've found to create a more grateful family.

Model gratitude. As parents, we need to do a good job of modeling how to be grateful. When someone helps you, your kids will hear you say "thank you" and emulate your behavior in the future. Write thank you notes when you get a gift. Bring a hostess gift when your friends invite you to dinner. Tell your kids when someone does something nice for you that makes you happy. They'll definitely learn how to show gratitude and how easy it is to make someone happy. Most importantly, thank your kids when they do something super special for you.

Daily thanks. Every day at dinner, in the car, or before bedtime ask everyone in the family to share one or two things they are grateful for each day. Some families do this at the dinner table while praying, others keep a daily journal. Whatever works best for your family, make sure you do it consistently.

Lend a Hand. There is no better way to show how fortunate your family is than to help someone who is not. Have your kids volunteer with you. Have your kids help you shovel your elderly neighbor's driveway. Collect non-perishable food in your neighborhood and deliver it to a local food pantry. Read my post for other family volunteering ideas.

Make Gratitude Fun. Start a new tradition where you can nominate another family member for a Gratitude Award when they do something nice for you. You can make this a weekly award or collect nominations throughout November and announce the good deeds in front of the whole family at Thanksgiving dinner. Write thank you notes to special people in your life for their help throughout the year - a neighbor who drives your kids to school; the babysitter who is always there for you; your Scout Leaders who gives so much of their time to make sure your kids are having fun.

Instead of a Secret Santa, have your kid play a game where they are secret helpers. Have them secretly do a chore or nice deed for someone else. Then see if the recipient can guess who helped them. Finally, have your kids make these Thanks and Giving trees. Every night in November, they write down something they are thankful for on a leaf and paste it to the Thanks Tree. They also write something Giving they did on a leaf and paste it to the Giving tree. It's a cute way to decorate for Thanksgiving and the whole family will love reading what the kids wrote. Download these cute templates from LivingLocurto.com.

How do you teach your kids to be more grateful? I'd love to add more ideas!

Read my Creative Thanksgiving Family Fun Ideas to start a new tradition or just have more fun with your family this Thanksgiving.