Hello sweet friends and happy Saturday! Are you gearing up for Thanksgiving yet? I must admit, it’s one of my favorite holidays. But sometimes, it’s smothered by the whole early-arrival-of-Christmas thing. We feel like as bloggers, Jamin and I totally toe the line between Christmas overload (to get ideas to you in time) and taking the time to communicate the idea of truly observing the holiday.
We believe that this is an idea and attitude we need to strive for all year long. Not just one day of the year. It’s a habit we really want to infuse into our children as a lifelong habit… and Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to discuss this with your kids.
I’m a visual person, and our children are visual learners. So we rounded up a few of our favorite projects and ideas, and revamped them with fresh inspiration – as ideas to use with your kids to discuss the idea of Thanksgiving, the history behind it, and taking the time to be thankful.
Our kids love special place settings at our table. Any time we make something special, it’s the perfect opportunity to get their attention, and discuss it. Dressing up the table for a special event is something my mother did for us when we were children, and it just felt special. A time to gather, celebrate, and discuss things that are special to us, and what we are grateful for. It’s a special, fun tradition. There are plenty of wonderful ideas out there, but we created this little table scape for them, (and will do something else, this year.)
And little place settings like this, with fun color that they can use later.
A no sew teepee. We use ours as a reading area, and it moves around the house. No, it’s not historically accurate, but it’s a great way to open up a discussion for Native Americans, and history and their lives. How someone once lived in this, and it was all they needed. Our kids are fascinated with the idea, and it’s a great learning opportunity.
We originally used these as free printable place cards. But it’s a great for your kids to write what they’re thankful for at the Thanksgiving table.
Our kids loved making this a few years ago. Just a little garland from painted leaves that they created, and you can write something daily that you’re thankful for on them. This is something we’re revisiting this year.
Just a little craft that I created, but a great idea for your kids, as well. I think we’ll be trying a kid version of this. This is something else that would be fun to add, with the ideas of what we’re thankful for, attached.
A thankful box + a thankful tree – both with free printables – the same concepts, but opens up the discussion of what we’re grateful for, with our kids.
Just a few little ideas we thought would be helpful and fun to round up, as a great way to observe what we’re grateful for!
Have an inspired day, friends!
Jenna says
Love this and all of your ideas! Totally agree with the idea of being grateful. These are wonderful. Thank you!
Annie says
Such a gorgeous, fun, colorful home!
Alexis says
This is great! We have been meaning to try this teepee forever. I am definitely doing it now, and tying it into a lesson for thanksgiving with my kids.
Andrea says
I don’t see the leaves when I get to the printables page. Is it under something else? I can download other items but I just don’t see a category for leaves 1 and 2?
Thank you so much for all of your cute and inspiring ideas!
LibbyBoyle says
We don’t celebrate Thanks Giving in Australia but I think it must be a wonderful way to make everyone think about how lucky their lives are. My nephew and his wife have a tradition of asking each of their daughters at bed time what was the best and worst thing to happen that day. They say it has given them much insight into the lives of their girls. These girls are my very special great-nieces and after seeing your tee pee and others on Pinterest I was inspired to make one for them. I wrote a blog post about the fun time I had making tepees. If you have time for a cuppa and a quiet read, I hope you enjoy it …
http://llibbyslifestyle.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/how-to-make-tee-pee-finally.html
Thanks for inspiring me to make tee pees!