Gratitude Journal
Raising children into good people is difficult work. It requires a lot of intentional thought and planning, for parents to be proactive rather than reactive, and for everyone to seize upon a teachable moment if it arrives.
I want my children to spend their lives being grateful for what they have, rather than being upset and disappointed by what they lack. Eric and I occasionally have conversations about gratitude, but those conversations are after the kids go to bed and / or are out of earshot. For our kids to learn gratitude, we need to model it for them. So, today, the Whomptons started a Gratitude Journal. Each person gets a page in it and will add to his/her "I'm grateful for ..." list each day.
When I explained gratitude to Raina, she changed the concept to be "things that are important to me" and once she got started with her list she didn't want to stop. We continued our conversation about gratitude in bed (instead of a bedtime story!) and she ended the conversation with "I'm very lucky." She's exactly right.
Here are the kids' entries.
Raina: Momma cow, my family, learning, my comforter, love, milk and water, meals, clean rivers, and clean water that comes out of the sink that we can drink
Lola: Daddy
I want my children to spend their lives being grateful for what they have, rather than being upset and disappointed by what they lack. Eric and I occasionally have conversations about gratitude, but those conversations are after the kids go to bed and / or are out of earshot. For our kids to learn gratitude, we need to model it for them. So, today, the Whomptons started a Gratitude Journal. Each person gets a page in it and will add to his/her "I'm grateful for ..." list each day.
When I explained gratitude to Raina, she changed the concept to be "things that are important to me" and once she got started with her list she didn't want to stop. We continued our conversation about gratitude in bed (instead of a bedtime story!) and she ended the conversation with "I'm very lucky." She's exactly right.
Here are the kids' entries.
Raina: Momma cow, my family, learning, my comforter, love, milk and water, meals, clean rivers, and clean water that comes out of the sink that we can drink
Lola: Daddy
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