Category Archives: gratitude

Year of Gratitude: I am thankful for Heavenly Father

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Our family’s new year resolution is to work on gratitude (read more about it here). During the month of January we will be focusing on learning more about our Heavenly Father, why we are grateful for Him, and different ways we can express that gratitude to Him.

Each week we will discuss one of the following topics. I have also included a brief list of some of the resources we will be using to teach each topic. Many of the resources come from the Primary Partners/ Sunday Savers sharing time books that I bought years ago at Seagull Book for $2. Other ideas I found while searching online.

I am sure there are a million other cute ideas on these topics out there and if you know of any I would love to hear them!
Happy Teaching!

A Year of Gratitude: Our Family’s New Year Resolution

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A lot has happened of good things have happened to our family the past 6 months- my husband graduated from college, got a new job, we moved into a new house,… things were looking great! I knew I wanted to work on expressing gratitude as a New Year’s resolution. We had SO much to be thankful for! And I knew that I didn’t want this to just be a personal goal- but something we could all work on as a family. I envisioned a whole year of meaningful journal writing and all our FHE lessons centered on gratitude.

And then we were hit with an unexpected trial (I won’t go into detail about it now, let’s just say it’s a road bump on our blissful journey). I wanted to wallow in self pity, but knew in my heart that now more than ever my family needed to focus on gratitude.

Lift up your hearts in praise to God;
Let your rejoicings never cease.
Though tribulations rage abroad,
Christ says, “In me ye shall have peace.”
Hymn #122: Though Deepening Trials

I am hoping that the focus of our year of gratitude will help us to more easily recognize all of our blessings, express gratitude to others & in our prayers for specific blessings, and strengthen our family. We have already built a foundation of teaching polite behaviors with our daughter, but I want to immerse her in the deep happiness that comes when we are truly grateful. Including recognizing and expressing gratitude when things aren’t going our way.
Here is our plan:
We have 12 monthly gratitude themes that are centered around gospel teachings: Heavenly Father, Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ, Prophets, Scriptures, Bodies, Country/Home, Covenants, Plan of Salvation, Family, Extended Family/ancestors, and Service. Each monthly theme also has sub topics in gray shaded boxes. (I went through old family home evening books and highlighted topics of gospel study I knew our family needed, then just inserted them throughout the year.)
You can’t have a family home evening planner without a binder! 
Inside the binder are our individual gratitude journals where we will be writing down things that we are grateful for  each week and lesson plan ideas for each theme.
Our 12 monthly themes divider pages for the gratitude binder.
Here is a free printable for you- print the pic below and create your own gratitude journal!
Well it is almost 1:30 AM and I am grateful for my nice warm bed that I am about to jump into! If there are any files that you would like a copy of, please feel free to email me and I will send them your way.
Happy Teaching!

Gift Opening Practice

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Like many of you, I want my daughter to be gracious and kind. Especially when given a gift. To avoid any potential acts of ingratitude during her birthday party, we practiced opening presents. It was a totally fun game and it provided my kiddo with the learning experience I desired! This would be a fun activity to do with your kids right before a birthday, Christmas, or other times of gift exchanging!

My daughter had a surprise party with some of her stuffed animals in attendance. Each animal brought a gift (misc toys found in her playroom).

Some gifts were good- like her favorite dinosaurs or pillow pet.

the “good” gifts

Others were not so good- rolls of toilet paper and random food storage items from our pantry.

the “not so good” gifts

We sat in a circle and one at a time each animal would give their gift. Boo would open the present, say one thing she liked about the gift, and “thank you”. Even when the gift was not so good.

I love Boo’s facial expression when she received dry soup mix from her unicorn!

The day of the birthday party came- and my daughter got lost in the excitement of all the presents- but I think she was as gracious as a 4 year old could be with a stack of so many fun toys to play with! This is one reason I LOVE opening gifts throughout the entire day instead of one fast paced session. 🙂

This unhappy tiger was tuckered out from opening gifts.

Happy Teaching!

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