Create A Daily Practice of Gratitude

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the good things in life and embrace gratitude. Gratitude is known to be a mood booster and improve your overall wellbeing. It’s something you can practice with your children every day.

At National Heritage Academies, the month of November is focused on gratitude as one of the nine Moral Focus values taught in schools. By emphasizing virtues like gratitude, their goal is to nurture kindness, empathy, and character in our students. Here are a few activities they recommend:

• Start each day by having your child name something or someone they’re grateful for. Encourage them to be specific about why they appreciate that person or thing. This works great during breakfast or on the car ride to school.
• End the day with an attitude of gratitude. Spend five minutes asking your child what they were thankful for that day.
• Keep a family gratitude list, adding to it as often as needed. A fun way to do this is to write down moments of gratitude on slips of paper and store them in a Gratitude Jar. Take it out regularly to read what your family is thankful for.

If you would like to talk more with your kids about gratitude, try asking these questions:

• What does “gratitude” mean to you?
• When has someone thanked you, and how did it make you feel?
• When have you felt grateful recently?
• I’m grateful for ___. What are you grateful for?
• What have you been learning about gratitude in school?

Taking a moment to comment below what you're thankful for. Try sharing regularly with your family this month and see how it changes your outlook.

National Heritage Academies is a charter school management company that operates 100+ tuition-free schools across nine states serving over 60,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.