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Teaching Children Gratitude {Book & Activity}

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I am thrilled to be participating in 21 Days of Gratitude with several amazing bloggers.

Inspired by Family Magazine

So, today, on this first rainy day of November, I am grateful for my HEALTH.

I want my children to be grateful and to embrace gratitude for a lifetime. J is 3.25 and Y is almost 2 but I feel strongly that you can never start too early teaching and talking about BIG life topics (See: Kids & Grief, Peace Education and Kids & Money). So, today we are reading a children’s book called Gratitude Soup by Olivia Rosewood, a magical story that will warm you and your children.

A little girl creates a gratitude soup and she realizes that a feeling of gratitude is exponential. In other words, once you start thinking about all those things in life for which you are grateful, you think of more and more and more….the idea is contagious. Science supports the idea that the feeling of “gratitude” is actually good for our health. Amazing, right?

After we read the book J was really excited to make his own Gratitude Soup, completely unprompted by me. We like to make soup, real soup and pretend soup. This soup is an extension to that play. So I asked my son, “What are you grateful for?” He started by saying, “Trains, Dinosaurs…” then he moved to our family, “Y, Daddy, Nana…” then onto his school, “Ms. Bozkus, my new friends, Vienna…” It was magical and inspiring to hear him list off more and more of life’s treasures. He is beginning to write but I suspect our soup will be a lot of drawing, coloring and a bit of writing assistance from me. I’m really looking forward to the activity this afternoon. Perfect for a rainy day.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope that we inspired you to participate in 21 Days of Gratitude! Please leave a comment, I love hearing from you!

Marnie

Other children’s books on the topic of gratitude that we love:

About Marnie Craycroft

Marnie hails from Maine where she spent summers buried in sand and winters buried in snow. She is the daughter of a nearly four decade veteran of the public school systems. Teaching has always been a part of her life. She founded Carrots Are Orange in 2010.

Carrots Are Orange is a Montessori learning and living website for parents and teachers.

Marnie graduated from Wesleyan University in 1999 with a BA in Economics. She spent nearly a decade working in investment management. In 2006, she earned her MA in business from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.

Marnie moved to the west coast in 1999 and currently lives in Boulder with her husband and three sons. She is Montessori trained. Her work has been featured on Apartment Therapy, Buzzfeed, PBS Kids, BabyCenter, the Melissa & Doug blog, Huffington Post, and WhattoExpect.com. Besides writing, passions include running (usually after her three sons), photography, and outdoor adventures.

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