Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Gratitude, Rainbows & St. Patty's Day

We are getting ready to paint a HUGE Rainbow to tape onto our window... with a pot of gold at the end. Each 'piece of gold" will represent something we/I/each kid is grateful for. I am sure the"gold" will quickly be turned into Easter Eggs!

This is an exercise in PURE JOY. Last Thanksgiving we made a Gratitude Tree. The leaves being where we wrote our 'what fors"on. It is amazing how kids embrace doing this. Mine are 4 and 7, and they had a ball. Not only coloring, but in having place to actually be grateful for "pasta & cheese!" We even include all the kids who came into the house. When they enter, they color and tape the leaf or gold or (Easter) egg.

Kids GET this. It gives then space and joy to experience gratitude. They have so many emotions for which they have no definition, or only the definition their parents give them. There is nothing that one cannot be grateful for. Nothing. No matter how material, small or grand. It works.

For us, it reminds us of the everyday things we are actually grateful for, and maybe we just forgot to remember that. This effects how I feel everyday.

As I write, I grateful for a venue in which to share this. I am grateful for the hope that someone is reading it! The hope that it will give someone an idea of their own. And for my kids who embrace my ideas....

No comments:

Post a Comment