Thanksgiving can be a special time for preschoolers. Time with family and friends, eating delicious food, and enjoying the smells and sights of the season can help build anticipation for celebrating the holiday. Thanksgiving provides a wonderful opportunity to teach children about why families gather to give thanks at harvest time. You can add gratitude to your Thanksgiving traditions with these easy ways to encourage thankfulness in children.
1. Encourage “Please” and “Thank You” Early
It’s never too early to start encouraging kindness. To build the gratitude habit early, use kind words to make requests or show gratitude when you receive something. Both children and adults are often polite with new acquaintances and we can extend the same courtesy to our friends and family. Before you gather for the winter holidays, practice saying thank you for everything from a passed plate to a long-awaited present.
2. Show Them What Thankfulness Looks Like
When spending time with your child, try to give thanks for little things. Make a point to thank your servers and store clerks, and specifically explain why that person’s actions are appreciated. Additionally, thank your child for completing tasks like picking up their toys or sharing with a friend or their siblings. Everyone loves to feel appreciated. When your child goes above and beyond to show kindness or help another person, thank them for it! By associating a kind act with positive verbal reinforcement, they’ll see that helping others makes everyone feel good — including the helper.
3. Develop a Gratitude Ritual
You can bring thankfulness to Thanksgiving through an annual gratitude ritual. To involve the entire family, ask everyone to bring an object that represents something they’re thankful for. By using physical objects, you’re helping further contextualize and encode the abstract concept of “gratitude” for your child’s developmental stage. After each person shares, you can place the objects on a nearby table as a visual reminder of all the blessings of the season. Another way to share gratitude is to have paper leaves or a paper tablecloth overlay with markers or pens nearby to capture your thankful moments.
4. Make Gratitude a Habit
Many preschoolers have bedtime routines that involve baths, books, and a big hug. During your bedtime routine, ask your child to recall one thing they felt thankful for that day. By helping them recall positive events, you’ll orient their developing brain toward optimism. Gratitude has so many positive effects on the brain, including activating the hypothalamus and increasing dopamine.
5. Make the Winter a Season of Giving Back
In addition to pretty lights, wrapping paper, travel, and lots of family time, the winter holidays are also about giving back to others. You can participate in acts of generosity with your child throughout the winter months. Even young children can assist you in making or delivering baked goods for others. They can pick out new toys to donate to a child in need or clear out a drawer of gently-used winter clothes to help others stay warm. They can help write holiday cards, drop off a secret present for a neighbor or friend, or help rake and bag leaves for an older relative. These activities feel special to children, and they’ll gladly join in on making this season joyful for everyone.
6. Choose a Preschool That Supports Giving Back
The Gardner School understands the value of providing ways for children to develop empathy by connecting with others. By investing in strong connections in our local community, we prioritize these volunteer opportunities for our staff and students.
We also make it a priority at all our preschool locations to support a local organization during the holidays. Toys for Tots or the Salvation Army Angel Tree program are just two of the many ways our schools have given back to the local community during the holidays. Involving children in giving helps them grow in generosity. To learn why parents choose The Gardner School for their children to grow and learn, contact us to learn more or to schedule a virtual tour.
