Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Thanksgiving Family Night

On Monday night, for our weekly family time gospel study I tried teaching Maggie and the boys about gratitude. I read them a Thanksgiving story and talked about what it meant to be thankful. I don't think Maggie really got anything from the story, though, because she was busy trying to climb up her father's back onto his head.

Then we went up to the kitchen table for the family night activity: making thankful turkeys. Earlier in the afternoon Maggie and I had traced our hands in preparation, since we all know a traced hand is the perfect beginning of a thankful turkey.

Like so:


Only problem: being a kindergarten teacher, most of the things I think up really aren't super appropriate for toddlers. Within 17 seconds of starting the turkey decorating, Will had ripped 2 fingers off his turkey and torn mine in half. Then Maggie spilled a cup of water on Coleman's. Awesome.


We persevered and ended up with these:


But Maggie really didn't get it. Every time we asked her what she was thankful for, she'd say, "Me."
I said, "Are you thankful for your toys? or your brothers? or your friends?"
She said, "No! ME!"
We just wrote things she should be thankful for. I think deep down she is.


7 comments:

Lilly said...

Those are stinking DARLING I love dove that idea! I'm totally stealing it! Like a thief in the night! On my turkey I will say I am thankful for my thieving skills.

Ginna said...

oh sweet megan, just give it some time. We did this same basic thing on monday night and Max actually participated. You're getting closer to that. You're such a good mommy.
And your turkeys are adorable. I'm going to post ours today. Max's turned out hilarious because of him being in charge of the glue stick.
And I had fun even though Max had to be coerced into putting me down on his turkey. I mean, who's thankful for mom, right? :)

Amanda D said...

My boys both wrote that they were thankful for themselves. I told them that was okay because I'm thankful for them too. My boys are 8 and 4. They both wrote down other things too so I figure it's okay that they are thankful for themselves. :)

Marilyn said...

Cute idea! I think it's awesome that you perservered even with the spilled water etc. Last FHE, I had a lesson prepared on forgiveness but everyone was being so AWFUL that I said, "I just don't feel like giving this one today" (I knew I should! But I just couldn't!) and we had an impromptu lesson from Sam instead on Being Nice to Mommy. (Good topic.) Anyway, I think we're going to use this idea next Thanksgiving.

Katie Gee said...

What a fantastic idea! I'm a-fear-d it's too late for me though. Maybe I can do this tomorrow morning before we go to the big feast. That way they can be busy instead of asking me over and over, "is it time to go yet?"

K said...

Okay. Here's the deal. Someday, she'll get it. I did.

Jennifer's Kitchen said...

Those are so dang cute. I mean SERIOUSLY cute. My kindergartener came home from school with what he's thankful for: "my hauwss (house) and me"

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