Gratitude

Make some happiness happen this month

Make Some Happiness Happen this Month

It’s August, and many of us feel the end of summer approaching. Many places have started back to school already, and we can feel the end of the fun sinking in. It’s easy to feel a little down with the end of summer time. So it’s kind of fitting that August is officially “Happiness Happens Month.” Happiness Happens Month is about celebrating things that make us happy. It’s a great way to focus on the good and to squeeze in a little more fun, and maybe even stretch it past the summer into the fall season. So what can we …

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new ideas for expressing gratitude

New Ideas for Expressing Gratitude in Your Home

Gratitude is the topic at this time of year, especially with our kids. They are hearing about Thanksgiving and thankfulness at home, at school, and wherever else they spend time. We make gratitude trees, put thankfulness notes into a jar, or verbally express what we are thankful for. These are great exercises for our kids, and they can set up a habit of thankfulness, which really is quite important. However, we can all start to feel that this gratitude teaching is getting a little stale year after year. How many ways can we make gratitude interesting to our kids? Hopefully …

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gratitude in the holiday season

The Power of Gratitude this Holiday Season

Many of us are coming out of a week of gratitude, and as usual, many of us are charging full speed ahead into the holiday season. This year, it seems that we are all so excited to jump into our December holidays. After months of pandemic burdens, people are ready to celebrate something, to enjoy traditions, to put up the decorations and bring joy to their communities. In my own community, I’m seeing more holiday decorations out than ever before, and they’ve been out for a few weeks now. We’re all ready for some joy, and this visible declaration that …

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Teaching Children to Be Grateful

Teaching Children to Be Grateful

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Teaching children to be grateful is an abstract skill. Being Grateful, also know as Gratitude, is a warm feeling of appreciation or thankfulness towards specific items, individuals, actions, etc. Learning how to say thank you is the foundation of showing gratitude. It is also an important sign for good manners and the best place to start with teaching gratitude. You can start teaching your child to say “thank you” through American Sign Language from infancy. Start to teach the sign “Thank you” by modeling it. Whenever your child hands you something say, “Oh! Thank you!” and sign “Thank you”. You …

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Helping Children Show Gratitude

By Colleen Brunetti, M.Ed., C.H.C   We recently wrote about teaching children the concept of gratitude. While much of that article centered on what you can do to model and encourage the concept of gratitude, we turn now to helping your children express the gratitude they are learning to notice and feel.   Here are some ideas to get you started!   1) Write thank-you notes: This is the old fashioned skill that never goes out of style.  Whether it is birthdays, holidays, or just the occasional nice gesture your child can be thankful for, encourage them to write and …

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