Fostering a sense of gratitude in your child is an essential life lesson that will help them grow into a caring and empathetic adult. Yet how do you teach your child the value of feeling grateful? As the staff of First Steps Day Care & Learning Center, a day care in Southbury, CT, relates, cultivating gratitude doesn’t have to be complicated. By engaging in a few simple practices at home, you can show your child the power of this positive emotion.

The significance of gratitude is well-documented in early childhood education, and it is an important part of your child’s development. To teach your young son or daughter about being grateful, try these fun activities:

• Recognize & Appreciate Good Things: To show your child the value of acknowledging when someone has made a contribution to their life, make counting blessings a regular activity. Choose a time every week, like before a family meal together or on the way home from an after school program, and ask your child to identify several experiences that made them feel happy and grateful. Follow this by sharing a few things you are grateful for as well.
• Make Thank You Notes: For a fun exercise in cultivating gratitude, sit down with your child and craft creative thank you notes for people who are important to your family. These may be as simple as a colorful drawing for preschoolers, or more in-depth handwritten notes if your child is in elementary school. Join them in making a card for someone at least once per month to make it a habit. The note could be for a friend, a relative, or a nursery school teacher; whoever has made a positive impact on them.
• Give More than Just Thanks: Planning a regular “Thank You Day” is a wonderful way to show your child how small acts of appreciation can have a big impact on those around them. As part of this special day, put together a basket of treats, like hand-picked flowers or home-made cookies, and deliver it to someone your child has selected. This could be a teacher at their day care center, a sports coach, or a friendly neighbor. In turn, your child will see first-hand how happy their unexpected act of gratitude makes others.