Gratitude in children

gratitude pic 2

 As I was reading an interesting little blog on a new website ‘A Lust For Life’, I was reminded of a day in my preschool service when the children were decorating handmade ‘Mother’s Day’ cards. I had asked the children to think about why we are giving these cards to our mommies, why do we love our mommies and what do our mommies do that makes us feel happy or special? This was a great opportunity for the children to feel gratitude for the positives in their lives.

Without much hesitation the children filled me in on how well their moms looked after them. They were happy for me the write down their anecdotes on their cards in a way that their moms would feel appreciated.  “Thank you for making breakfast” and “Thank you for letting me make buns” were some words of appreciation.

When it came to Father’s Day a couple of months later, we did the same. Children thanked their dads for such gifts as “Taking [them] swimming” and “Playing with [them] in the playroom”

This is an exercise that can be undertaken on a regular basis, giving attention to different areas of the child’s life, for example:  “Think about how you are greatful for your siblings/school friends/where you live” or simply “What happened today that you are thankful for?”

Feeling gratitude for aspects of our lives helps us to focus on the positives all around us, and what a great tool for a child to posess as he/she wades through any obstacles that may turn up in their lives.

In the blog post that I read this morning, the author’s ‘experiment in gratitude’ was to write a letter to his mother outlining how he was grateful to her for being who she was and doing what she did for him. (Sweet, wouldn’t any mother just love that!)

You can read the full post via the link below.

http://www.alustforlife.com/soul/compassion/an-experiment-in-gratitude

Niall Breslin/”Bressie”‘s (and others) ‘A Lust for Life’, is a wonderful new website which aims to encourage us to focus on our holistic health and well being including mental & physical health, our inner world and society around us.

http://www.alustforlife.com/

Leave a Reply