By Mei Yee
I think good manners goes hand in hand with teaching children gratitude. I feel this because after they master the basics of saying thank you when receiving something, you can dive deeper into teaching children to be grateful.
UNC Chapel Hill did a project called “The Raising Grateful Children Project,” the project showed that gratitude has four parts;
Notice: Recognizing the things you have to be grateful for.
Think: Thinking about why you were given those things.
Feel: The emotions you experience as a result of things you have been given.
Do: The way you express appreciation.
Here are some questions for each part that you could ask your children are:
Notice: What or who in your life are you grateful for?
Think: What do you think about the gifts you have been given? What do you think about the person who gave them to you?
Feel: How do you feel about the gift? What about this gift makes you happy?
Do: Is there a way to show how you feel about this gift? Do the feelings you have for this gift make you want to share this feeling with others?
You won’t always have to ask them these questions because they will think about these things on their own after a while. Another way they can express gratitude is maybe start a gratitude project of their own. Or they could keep a journal and write down what they got, who gave it to them, and how they felt about it.
Maybe at the end of the week, everyone can express one thing they were grateful for that happened during the week.
There are so many ways to show you are grateful.
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