I don’t know about you but Thanksgiving snuck up on me this year. With the Nor’easter, Halloween and both kids' birthdays, I am halfway into the month and just starting to think about Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is such a great time to talk to kids about being thankful because there really aren’t a lot of distractions to this holiday. You have turkey and family and that is about it. No gifts, no big man in a red suit, no lighting candles for eight nights (we celebrate both Christmas and Chanukah) and no weekends filled with parties. Thanksgiving is pretty basic when you think about it, and I like that. It’s a day dedicated to giving thanks and, with kids, we need a day like that.

Now that both of my kids are old enough to understand that they are very fortunate, I decided to build on that and change some of the “me” thinking I have noticed lately to “we” thinking. I started by taking a few days to watch them closely and in doing so realized that while they are very nice kids they have no clue, as I suspect most don’t, how fortunate they are. I don’t mean to burden my kids with the worries of the world but I do think, at this age, they should have some idea of their blessings.

I decided to start at the beginning and looked for a few good books on the story of the first Thanksgiving. Not as easy as one would think. Some of the books were too blunt in their description of the hardship of the boat trip to America, so those were out. Others took too many liberties with the history, so those were out. I ended up at www.scholastic.com and found many options, but your best bet is to run over to your local bookstore and read through a few so there are no surprises at story time. You can also jump online and find some fun videos, but again, I suggest you watch them first like any other video so you don’t get caught off guard.

Once I felt the kids really understood why we celebrate Thanksgiving, I started talking about being thankful at dinner time, during our daily car ride after school pick-up and after books at bedtime. The kids started getting into it. It was hilarious to hear my four-year-old say he was thankful for chicken, the latest friend to have a cool birthday party and a warm house (he clearly remembers the power being out during the October Nor’easter). My six-year-old struggled a little more but finally came up with school, friends and Mom and Dad. I had some work to do.

I decided to step outside my comfort zone and do a craft with them so they could use their hands and minds and work on this being thankful thing a bit more. I had them trace their little hands on colored paper, cut them out and then write things they are thankful for every day until Thanksgiving (remember, I am getting a late start to this, so we have some writing to do). They loved this. I let my four-year-old write whatever came to his mind but asked my six-year-old to dig a little deeper, use adjectives and try to come up with something she is thankful for that goes beyond the obvious. Man, the sweat was rolling down her forehead, but eventually, after some discussion on how other kids live, she got it.

Again, my goal here is not to have my kids bear the weight of the world on their shoulders but to enlighten them a bit on life without the “stuff” they take for granted. I think my kids need to know that not everyone has what they have and I am not talking about Uggs, massive amounts of LEGOs and the "Cars 2" DVD. I am talking about what my daughter finally realized and wrote on the hands we made for our Thanksgiving Tree: good health, a loving family, an education, food, a roof over our head, clothes, friends and an appreciation that these things can all be gone at any moment.

Before the insanity that is December starts in your house, take a moment to really think about what you are thankful for with your kids. Ask them to get specific, write it down and think it out. Teach them how to move from “me” to “we” thinking and put that new thinking into action. Find a charity and ask them to donate some of their money and match it with yours. Ask them to come with you when donating clothes, books or toys so they can see the appreciation directly. I have noticed a change already and hope to continue with more community service with the kids not only at Thanksgiving but year round.

FULL SOURCE: needham.patch.com/articles/teaching-kids-to-be-thankful-65e2cbe9