Last Thanksgiving my sister-in-law hosted us for the day, and she created a little gratitude experience by making an interactive bulletin board. She had little slips of paper that everyone could write things they were thankful for. It was a really meaningful exercise and a great visual reminder of all of our blessings. It was also the perfect way to get the kids involved in thinking through what they are grateful for.
I decided to try to recreate this experience this year, and start at the beginning of November so that gratitude becomes our theme for the month . . . sort of like an advent calendar for Thanksgiving. I’m not the craftiest person, so rather than trying to make my own bulletin board or nice letters, I turned to my old standby: Amazon prime. I ordered a large framed cork board and then searched for wall decals about thankfulness or gratitude. I liked this gratitude wall decal but ended up going with one that says In Everything Give Thanks.
Applying it to the cork board was surprisingly easy.
I just laid out the lettering where I wanted it, pulled of the backing, and used a credit card to smooth out the letters.
I also ordered some Martha Stewart and David Tutera craft tags to give us some variety, and some silver push-pins.
Now our family is free to ad tags to the board, writing in things they are thankful for.
Now we’ve hung the board in a prominent spot in the house.
We’ve got a stash of tags at home and a stash in the car, so that the kids are continuously prompted to think about things they are thankful for and write them down.
Having the tags in the car has been great, because it’s a time when the kids are still, undistracted and often looking for something to do. I love seeing them reflect after school and think about specifics from that day that they’re grateful for, which they’re prompted to do by seeing our tag stash. On the way home, they’re reminded of things they appreciated at school — the library, the science lab or their music teacher. A recent trip to Grandma’s was also a fun reflection time where they filled out different tags for family members they are thankful for.
It’s been fun seeing them take ownership of this exercise and fill up the board. Our goal is to have no cork space left on the board by Thanksgiving!
I’m loving the way this is encouraging us to count our blessings, and I think this board may become a November tradition for us!
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