Things to Do with Children this Fall that Teach Gratitude

Autumn is my favorite season! Pleasant weather, changing nature, fall decorations, and autumn holidays. It’s a magical time for you and your children (or grandchildren) to spend exploring the beauties of nature and sharing wonderful activities. It’s also a time to teach children about gratitude.

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I’ve figured out over the years that while having fun some powerful lessons can be learned.  These activities might help you do both:

Give Experiences

One thing I feel strongly about is giving experiences instead of toys or eating out. We, as a whole, have too many things: toys, clothes, technology, junk. Find experiences that open our minds and the minds of our children to the needs of others and the abundance in our lives. Spending time with our children and grandchildren is the best gift we can ever give them! It’s a time to share our values, share our experiences, and share our hopes and dreams. Look for opportunities to teach compassion and gratitude.

Apple Picking

Not only is apple picking fun, but it’s an opportunity for kids to learn who grows the food they eat. Before or after picking watch Where do Apples Come From. Once you get home you’ll have apples to use in myriad ways.  Consider making apple butter, apple hand pies, or a favorite apple dessert.  Now to take it one step further – share what you have made with someone else.

Scavenger Hunt

Take your kids to a park or nature preserve for a Scavenger Hunt.  While you’re out exploring gather some smooth, round stones to make Gratitude Stones.  Melissa from Fireflies and Mudpies shares wonderful ways to use these gratitude stones.

Teach the Value of Money

We’ve all heard the saying money doesn’t grow on trees. But when you’re a kid you feel like money comes from a credit or debit card not realizing that someone has to earn the money to pay for the purchase. Recently our granddaughter HD wanted a new tablet or phone. She’s at the age where she wants to keep in contact with cousins and friends and her existing technology just wasn’t up to it. None of the adults in her life were willing to spend the money. So I suggested that she clean out her stuff and sell it. It took most of the summer but she ended up earning about $275 which was enough for an Iphone 8 (no data plan just WiFi). She worked hard and it was a sacrifice to let go of some of her possessions. But she did it. Help your children with a bake sale, garage sale, dog walking, raking leaves, or whatever is appropriate for their age. 

Let your children purchase something with their hard-earned money. They will have a deeper understanding of the bread-winners in the family and what it takes financially to run a house paying for needs and wants.

Petting Zoo

Children learn to be caring, responsible people as they learn to care for animals. After visiting a petting zoo drop off a bag of dog food or cat food at a local animal shelter. National Geographic says kids learn kindness from animals.  This article provides details and links to videos.

Pumpkin Patch

Head to a local pumpkin patch and choose your favorite pumpkins and a few extras to deliver to shut-ins.  Make pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, or toast the pumpkin seeds.  Drop off a pumpkin treat to someone in need.

Make and donate a blanket

Over the last decade, our family has made and donated hundreds of blankets. Each of our daughters made baby quilts for a local unwed mother’s home and we’ve donated to the Ronald McDonald House. My granddaughter HDH and I shopped for fabric and made a few quilts, too. It’s hard for her to let go of her favorite quilts but she always feels good when we visit the organization we have chosen to donate to.  Be sure to call ahead to get size requirements.

Volunteer

Nothing compares to serving others to foster gratitude. We think we’ve got it bad, we may complain about things that we don’t have, or moan about our health, but when you serve at a soup kitchen, sort food at a food bank, rake leaves for the elderly, or spend time teaching refugees you realize just how much you/we/I do have when compared to others. For service opportunities in your area visit Justserve.org. Simply type in your zip code and dozens of service opportunities will pop up. 

Thankful Tree

Every year for as long as I can remember we have displayed a Thankful Tree.  It’s very simple to make: gather some branches from your yard and place in a can of rocks to anchor it, cut out leaves in various colors of construction paper, attach paper clips or ornament hooks to each leaf and put in a bowl or basket.  Every day each person takes a leaf and writes what he or she is thankful for and places it on the tree. When we have guests over we ask them to add a leaf, too.  Make cutouts on a Cricket or Silhouette or buy paper leaves or garlands of silk leaves at Dollar Tree.  Shop online for Silk Autumn Leaves or order a couple of packages of Colorful Maple Leaves.  One year I found a lit “branch” tree. It provides color to our tree.

Visit elderly friends

The holidays are such a lonely time for our sweet older friends living in assisted care or alone in their own homes. Friends and family don’t stop by often enough or long enough to meet the emotional needs of the aging. What can you do to brighten their day? A few ideas: make a table favor, make a dessert, take time to read a story, make a card, take a mum or pumpkin, just spend some time. Then take your children or grandchildren to visit and get to know the wonderful older generation. You can always call an assisted living center or Meals-on-Wheels for their ideas. If they are mobile take them to their favorite restaurant, museum, or shopping.

Cookie Decorating Party

This is the best activity my granddaughter and I share with her friends.  She invites 4 or 5 friends for an afternoon of decorating cookies, a craft or two, and time to hang out and dance to the Wii. The last few times this giggly group of 9-year-olds has delivered goodies to 3 or 4 older couples in our congregation.  Did I really call these lovely people “older”?  I think some are younger than I am!

Corn Maze

Corn mazes can be fun and frustrating. Let the children lead the way and figure out a plan to find the exit to the maze. The Amazing Maize Maze is practically in our backyard and it’s always on our autumn bucket list.  In this maze, you need to locate 12 mailboxes in 12 sections of the maze to complete a diagram before exiting. Finding the exit is a group effort where we learn to appreciate each person’s strengths — the person who can read a map, the person who has a sense of direction, and the person who is always happy when others are frustrated.

Take a Drive

Take a drive looking at colorful trees. Can you identify the different leaves and colors?  Why do some trees stay green? Take a camera and photograph your family enjoying the fall landscape. While you’re out exploring gather items you’ll need for holiday centerpieces: interesting limbs, moss, rocks, pinecones, hemlock cones, acorns, etc.  What to look for when foraging.

Make a scarecrow

One of the most loved movies of all time is the Wizard of Oz. These five misfits learn friendship, compassion, and courage as they help each other along the Yellow Brick Road. So make a scarecrow from old clothes stuffed with hay. As you make this scarecrow talk about or add symbolic traits from the characters of Oz (heart, book, etc.) What is the history behind scarecrows? History of Scarecrows

Gratitude Journal

Too often when we think about teaching gratitude we think about toddler and young children. But, what about teenagers and young adults?  It seems the older we get the less we appreciate the good things in our life.  When my girls were teens they wrote in a “Happy Book” all the things that made them happy. A few times a year they got together with other girls in their youth group and read from their Happy Books and enjoyed some comfort food.  Why not introduce a Gratitude Journal to everyone in your family.  You can print pages ABCs Thanksgiving Journal or purchase a Gratitude Journal.  I just purchased one for me!

Gobble Some Friends

Nicole from Not Quite Supermom suggests having your kids think of a person that they are thankful to have in their life and ‘gobble them’.   The Dating Divas share this idea and it’s adorable!!  Gather a little bag of goodies for the recipient and ‘ding dong ditch’ it on their doorstep.  They have free printables and ideas of what you might want to put into your bag.  So fun!

Movie Night

It seems like autumn is the time for scary movies BUT what about watching a movie about overcoming odds or learning through experience to be grateful. Each of these DVDs we happen to have on our shelf:  A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, The Blindside, The Pursuit of Happyness, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Pay It Forward, Freaky Friday A Little Princess, Hachi: A Dog’s Tale,   and The Secret Garden.  These versions are my favorites!  Be sure to have a conversation about the characters in the movies and how they showed gratitude.

Gratitude-themed books

I love the Bernstein Bear books for the moral lessons they teach.  A few that teach gratitude:  The Gimmies, Thinking of Those in Need, and Thanksgiving Blessings.  I also love the Llama Llama Time to Share with the Gnu Girl!  I know there are lots of great books out there that help children develop empathy for others and the beginnings of gratitude.

Donate to a cause

Show the children in your life how blessed they are.  Help them assemble back-to-school supplies, pack an Operation Christmas Child box, shop for and create a “Thanksgiving dinner box”, or purchase an angel tree gift.

Thanksgiving Day Activities

We go to Charlotte’s annual Thanksgiving parade and we enjoy the parade and know we’ll be going home to a delicious meal — a feast. Our house will be swarming with family members and all the craziness that brings. We play games, do a kids’ craft or two, maybe watch a movie. All the fun stuff.  But my favorite Thanksgiving tradition is delivering home-baked pies to the Men’s Shelter. A week or two before Thanksgiving I’ll send out reminders to my neighbors and friends that I’ll be delivering pies on Thanksgiving morning and ask them to drop them off at my house by Wednesday night.  My husband (aka Grandpaw), our granddaughter HDH and I will make 10-12 pies for the shelter and another 4-5 for our family.  HDH says “I love doing all our family traditions but my favorite is delivering pies!” 

If you’re like me you spoil your children and grandchildren way too much.  Maybe a few of these activities will help offset that spoiling and help them open their hearts to the needs of those less fortunate and help them be grateful for their blessings.