Gratitude

Craig and I only have a few main values that we hope to instill firmly into our children before they reach adulthood.  One of them is gratitude.  And not just gratitude for objects like birthday presents or the exact pair of shoes you wanted for the season, but also gratitude for family, friends, for travel opportunities, good health, laughter, for a delicious meal and the person who prepared it, for a sunny or a rainy day, for being loved, for music and movies, for a missed turn, etc.

About a year ago, we started working on the concept of gratitude by having Emilia say thank you (which she now does independently quite often), by seeking our kids' help in giving tokens of appreciation to others, and by having them participate in the making of thank you cards.  Rex does not enjoy arts and crafts at all, so the latter is truly an effort for him.  Emilia likes arts and crafts, but her fine motor skills have a long way to go to really make it work.  Still, there are so many fun and easy ideas out there that it's not hard to find something the kids can do.

For example, Rex's thank you cards for his birthday gifts involved some paint and his thumbprints which I then finished into little caterpillars:

\
Recently, Emilia, with the help of Ms. Rie, worked on a thank you card for her great-great-aunt who showered our family with some wonderful blessings.  We used a little shaving cream and food coloring for a marbeling effect, then pressed a piece of white card stock into the the colorful shaving cream, lifted it off, and let it dry:

When it was dry, I took a look at the two sheets Emilia had created, trying to spot some kind of pattern to cut out. I came up with this flower which I glued onto a blank card and voila.  By the way, did you know that shaving cream is a terrific cleaner?  After doing her part for the card, we let Emilia and her friend Cooper go wild with shaving cream on the countertop and the kids' table.  Both were spotless once we wiped away the shaving cream after the kids were finished playing.

Some day, I know at least two of my kids will be able to write their own thank you notes, but for now, I still take care of this task, only making them sign their names with hand over hand help.  More important than any thank you card, however, is our goal that all three of our children will grow up to have ever grateful hearts which will carry them through good times and bad.