10 Stress-Free Gratitude Activities for Your Whole Family!
A few days ago after leaving school, I took my kids to town to run some errands. We met my sister-in-law, got pizza, and went to a park. We ate, the kids played on a rock wall, and we walked around the river. Then we went to their favorite ice cream shop. On our home, one of my boys said, “this day wasn’t very good.”
“Today wasn’t good?” I asked. “Why was today not good? We did all of these fun things that you enjoy?” I couldn’t believe him! He didn’t even appreciate all that had been done for him! He was focusing on the things that had happened that day that he didn’t like, instead of all of the good that had happened!
Teaching our kids to be thankful can be difficult! Kids today have so much that it’s easy for them to feel entitled. For example, on Fridays, you may go for ice cream. If you miss a Friday, I bet your kids will remind you that they are “owed” ice cream, because they’ve always gotten it! (You may even know some adults like this! )
As Christians, it is also so important for us to teach our children contentment, and that “every good and perfect gift is from above”. That is not to discount hard work and effort, but let’s teach our children that even our health & the strength to work is a gift from God!
Practicing Gratitude
Thankfulness is something that doesn’t come naturally to us. I think that is probably why Scripture encourages us to “give thanks” and other words of gratitude, more than 100 times in the Bible.
It is up to us, as parents, to teach our children to be thankful. Gratitude activities are a great way to get kids (and the whole family) practicing gratitude. It gets them thinking about all that God has given them, not just the answers they think they”re supposed to give you!
Gratitude is as simple as appreciating what we have (however big or small). And if we learn to be grateful daily, there are so many benefits! According to Mind Body Green these include relieving stress, strengthening relationships, and it can even make you healthier, to only name a few! So why wouldn’t we want to give this gift of gratitude to our children?
But, how do we start to integrate gratitude activities into our family? There are many wonderful ways, here are few for you to try out!
Great Gratitude Activities for the Whole Family
Printable Gratitude Pages
There are many different fun gratitude activities that your family will enjoy doing together! I have created a bundle of printables with gratitude exercises & prompts that can be great way to get started teaching gratitude. It has 12 activities that can be used for kids & adults as well! Check out this awesome Gratitude bundle here!
Happy Jar
This is an idea that I have been thinking on for a while! Many times, when I ask my children what they are thankful for, they give me a list of things, i like to call the the “church answers”. You know, God, family, our home, etc. However, I want to get them thinking outside of “stuff” and the things they think that they are supposed to be thankful for and on to real experiences that happen in life that make them happy, and therefore, thankful!
One way to do this is with a happy jar! Cut up small pieces of colorful paper and allow each person to write something that has made them happy each day and place it in the jar. This way it gets them thinking about the good in the day, and also helps them to realize they can be thankful for non-material things!
Thankfulness Tree
In my family, we love putting our Christmas tree up, but I have never been overly excited about decorating for fall… until we started putting out a small “Thankfulness Tree”! I have purchased inexpensive twigs at Hobby Lobby along with pretty fall berries and I place them in a tall vase. I have taken sweet pictures of my family and placed them on small cut out leaves and decoupage the pictures onto the leaf pattern and once dry hang them on the tree. We can also add to our tree with what we are thankful for written on leaf cut-outs.
Gratitude Pumpkin
This idea from The Country Chic Cottage is so much fun, your kids will LOVE it! You buy an inexpensive artificial pumpkin and you can take turns writing on the back of it, things that each family member is thankful for. Use metallic sharpie markers for a little extra fun!
Charlene from Hess Un-Academy suggests gratitude balloons. This fun way of teaching gratitude allows each person in the family to write something or someone they are thankful for on a note, fold up the note, write that person’s name on the outside of it, and then place the piece of paper in the balloon and tie it off.
Next all the balloons go in a pile and then everyone looks for the note with their name on it! It would be important to make sure everyone has a note in a balloon, you could even randomly assign a person for each child to write about! This fun activity could be practices weekly for a great way to start a family meeting.
Thankfulness Board
This cute project is from Mom.Wife.Busy.Life. Taking a canvas or project board, you can create a colorful board with pockets for each day to place your little cards of thankfulness. The kids will enjoy filling the pockets each day with the many things that they are grateful for!
A Gratitude Journal
Older children might get excited about having their own gratitude journal. You can find cute ones here. Just encouraging them to try to write 1-3 things each day that they are thankful for can be a truly life-changing habit of gratitude for them to develop in their pre-teen years.
It is wonderful when we can start teaching our kids to look outside of themselves and their circumstances!
Gratitude Notes
Nicole from Coffee & Carpool has these cute little gratitude notes that your kids can fill in. This will get them in the habit of thanking others in their families and school for the things they appreciate about them. This might feel a little hard at first, but it’s a great practice to start!
Gratitude Door
Get a roll of butcher paper and hang it on a central door or wall in your house. Draw some cute pumpkins around the top and then a quote or “We are thankful for…” at the top. Keep pens & pencils nearby so each member of the family can add to it daily! By the end of the month you’ll have a whole list full of things that makes your family thankful, and you’ll be ready for a new list to fill up!
One Caution: Don’t use sharpies on your wall in case they bleed through!
Kindness Rocks
Painted rocks are all the rage and they are so fun to create! These sweet little rocks from Sustain My Craft Habit have cute little messages about thankfulness and kindness and would be grate to keep around as a reminder at home, or to hide and share with others!
M&M Gratitude Game
This is a variation of the M&M Getting to Know You game. For each color of M&M you give a category of what you are thankful for. Options could be
- Name a person you are thankful for- Blue
- Name a place you are thankful for-Orange
- What is a food that you are thankful for?- Red
- Name a thing you are thankful for.-Brown
- Wild Card/Your choice.- Yellow
Have fun switching it up in whatever ways you can think of.
The Importance of Gratitude
Gratitude may not come naturally, but there are such great benefits for all of us in exercising our “gratitude muscles”! And these fun, but simple gratitude activities for kids & adults are a great place to start!
If you still aren’t sure where to begin, check out this Gratitude Bundle in my printables shop! It has 12 printable activities, prompts, and worksheets that kids & adults will both enjoy using!
If you haven’t got my free printable Scripture cards for kids, do that here (I’d hate for you to miss them)! And leave me a comment letting me know what is your favorite gratitude activity that your do with your family!
