8 Days of Thanksgiving with Kids

I love Thanksgiving. I love the weather, I love the food, and I love the time with family with no expectation of gifts. I have recently felt that Thanksgiving is becoming more and more about meals, the big dinner, and decorations and less about reflecting on what we have. I personally feel we are losing the part about recognizing how blessed we are and how thankful we should be for what and who we have in our lives. This year I want to start a tradition with the kids that allow them to show thanks for the many things they have to be thankful for.

So Starting October 1st the kids and I will be recognizing our thankfulness everyday until Thanksgiving.
Here is our plan:

Day 1: Thankful for Toys
We have a lot of toys, many that the kids do not play with nearly as much as they should. So, I could get them to go through their toys and choose some to donate, but our elf Hermie generally asks them to do that. So for them to demonstrate that they are thankful for their toys I am going to take them to the store and have them pick out a new toy that we will put away for the toy drives coming up in the next month or so.

Day 2: Thankful for Food
I have two ideas that I am trying to decide between, and the decision will probably be a day of decision, as Tuesdays can be very busy for us. We will either gather goods from our pantry to donate to a local food bank, or we will go to a coffee shop and pay it forward to the people behind us in line.

Day 3: Thankful for Pets
Again, in December, Hermie usually has us donate food and supplies to our local animal shelters. So for this activity, I am thinking we will either go and cuddle the cats or walk the dogs at the shelter, fill up the bird feeders at the park, or deliver dog treats to the dogs walking in the park. Both of my kids love animals, so I am really looking forward to this day.

Day 4: Thankful for our House
We are so fortunate to live in the neighbourhood that we do. We have great neighbours and many friends that live close by. We live in a very busy area of the neighbourhood so we often get to see friends and family by chance just being in our yard. For this day, I am planning on the kids making cards and delivering them to our great neighbours, buying or picking flowers to go with the card, and walking along the path by our house and picking up any liter that we come across.

Day 5: Thankful for Teachers
I really cannot say enough about the daycare teachers and now pre-primary teachers that we have been so fortunate to have teach our kids. Life is so much easier when your kids are excited to go to daycare and school and love their teachers. I try to make the teachers feel as appreciated as they should throughout the year, but Thanksgiving is a nice time for the kids to recognize their teachers as well. This year, the kids are going to make their own thank you cards, bake a special treat for them, and slide in a little gift card for the dollar store/walmart/indigo (A store that we are fairly confident they frequent often to purchase supplies for all those neat activities they plan for the kiddos!)

Day 6: Thankful for Friends
This year we are planning our own friends-giving. It might be simple like a playdate at our house, or a nature scavenger hunt at the park, or a full on outing to a wildlife park or pumpkin patch. But we will do all the planning and invite those friends of ours that just make our lives that much more special because they are around.

Day 7: Thankful for Grandparents and Family
We are so blessed that my kids have great grandparents! They don’t live close by, so we don’t see them very often, but we are very fortunate for the special app called FaceTime. We are going to make it a point to FaceTime multiple relatives who we don’t get to see often and make sure they know how thankful we are to have them in our lives, and that even though we don’t see them, we think and talk about them often and thoroughly enjoy the time that we do spend with them.

Day 8: Thankful for our Immediate Family
So day 8 this year is Thanksgiving day. It will probably be the day that we have a big family dinner planned and will chow down and watch some football. It is generally a busy day with balancing Thanksgiving festivities with getting the house and things ready for the week to follow. My plan to end these 8 days is to curl up as our family of 4 (well 5, I’m sure our fur child will join as well) in a bed and read a couple of the thanksgiving books that we have and to just cherish the quiet (hopefully) moment that we are so lucky to be able to enjoy.

I’ve kept many of these activities fairly simple, mainly because my children are only 4 and 2 right now and the topic of being thankful is not as in depth as it would be in older children. As the years go on, I am sure we will expand on some of these activities, but I am really looking forward to experiencing these thankful days with them.

If you want to follow along on our journey coming up with these days, make sure you like and follow my facebook page bluenose mommy and my instagram page bluenosemommy.
What do you think of this idea? Do you like the activities I’ve come up with for this year? Or do you have any ideas that you would change for any of the days?