My Favorite Activity for Fostering Thankful Siblings

I am so thankful for my children.  That is probably why it drives me bonkers when they refuse to get along and aren’t thankful for each other.  Here is an easy activity to foster thankful siblings this Thanksgiving.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,

   the fruit of the womb a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

   are the children of one’s youth.

Blessed is the man

   who fills his quiver with them!

He shall not be put to shame

   when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.”

Psalm 127:3-5 ESV

Thankful Wreaths with a Twist

You may have seen a similar idea before.  This time it gets a bit of a facelift.  I am showing you my super easy, ultra frugal thanksgiving wreath, with a sibling twist.   

First, I take a paper plate and cut a hole in the center.  

Then I bought packs of leaves at our local only-a-dollar store.  They came 50 to a pack, so depending on how often you plan to do it and how many kids you have, you shouldn’t need too many.  

Give each of your children one or more leaves every night leading up to Thanksgiving (or as often you want to).   You may choose to do one leaf and assign them a sibling, or you can give them a leaf for each sibling.  

Ask your children to write each sibling’s initial and write or draw something they are thankful for about that sibling. (We didn’t write their whole name to save room.) It could be something that they like to do together or something they admire. Our rule is that once they have written something about that sibling, they cannot write that same thing on another night.

                                                          

You may choose to do one large family wreath.  If you have several children, you might prefer to give each child their own so you can fit all the leaves.  Glue the leaves to the paper plate wreaths.  I encouraged even spacing so it would look nice even before it was filled up with leave.                                 

***Another option is to glue clothespins to a wreath and clip your leaves on.  This will make a cute wreath you can use for similar activities throughout the year.  

                                                                                                                                                                                            You can even slip family photos into them!    
            

Enjoy your wreath!  

Raking in the Benefits

You won’t see change overnight, but it is important to stick with activities like this... Click To Tweet

Though you probably won’t see a change overnight, it is important to stick with activities that foster thankful siblings.  If we continually ask our children to be thankful, the idea will eventually take hold–even when it involves being thankful for their siblings!  

Train up a child in the way he should go;

   even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 ESV

What ideas do you have for helping your children be thankful for each other?