Gratefulness is one of those character traits that we can always improve on. I have noticed in my own life that when I am showing gratefulness it seeps down to my children and my entire family. If I am grumbling and complaining about circumstances, or petty things, that gets passed down too. How many times have you found yourself complaining about something little, and then you hear the same thing come out of your child’s mouth the next day? OUCH.
This year, more than ever is a time to really settle down and focus on what we are grateful for. It has been a tough, tough year for so many families. Job losses, sickness, civil and political unrest. Vacations and special events cancelled. Disappointment. Worry for what the future holds. We need to be able to take a step back, enjoy our family and the resources God has given us.
Being thankful for the simple things.
How many of you are so thankful that you have toilet paper in your house right now? Who would have ever taken something like toilet paper for granted until this year? We literally jumped for joy when my husband found a pack of 1 ply. That is something I would normally complain about, and we rejoiced to have anything! Can you believe it? It sounds silly, but it is absolutely something to be grateful for.
Every little step at showing gratitude, helps you to be more grateful for even the hard things. Sometimes it is the hard things that shows us the simple things we can thank God daily for. It helps your children to be grateful and complain less as well when they see you modeling this in your home. Before you know it, gratefulness will be flowing from your heart, and you will see true change, joy and happiness.
This month’s subscriber freebie is our Gratefulness Character Planner:
November is always a great month to hone in and focus on being grateful and thankful for our blessings. Even more so this year, but it is just more easily done during the time of Thanksgiving. With the Thanksgiving holiday around the corner, our family always enjoys doing unit studies on thankfulness.
This is the perfect time to gather your family around and work on these activities together. Felice always includes some creative ideas, experiences, activities, printables and worksheets to help your family work together towards the specific trait. There is a lot of room for discussion, and very good thinking and conversation points as well.
What is in this month’s planner?
Our Character Counts planner will help you plan out a 4-week study on the character trait of gratefulness. Our planners are open and go and all the planning is done for you. They are also customizable, meaning you can pick and choose what you would like to use. The planners are not dated so you can use them anytime of the year. I like to print ours out and store them in a character training binder. Character training is a great addition to a family morning time in your homeschool. The activities are good for all ages in your family.
Check out what is inside:
- Character Quality Family Checklist Worksheet
- 4 Week Study Gratefulness/Thankful vs. Ungrateful
- Analyze and Evaluation Sheets
- Character Trait Planning Worksheets
- Gratefulness and Your Gifts Journaling Sheets
- Gratefulness Study Worksheets for Kids
- Activity Sheets and Create a Poster
- Grateful Tree Craft
- Gratefulness Printable Motivation Posters
- Certificate of Completion
The directions on how to download your free Character Counts Planner are sent in each weekly ezine. The planner access information is always located at the bottom of each email. If you are not signed up, you can sign up HERE.
