Preparations Include to help Children how Thanksgiving
Since children learn from repetition when small, start including them in the Thanksgiving preparations with activities that the whole family participates in year after year, make it a family tradition. When they are grown they will talk about those times during the holidays and may even make them a tradition in their own homes. Small children are too young to help prepare the meal and all that goes with it, but they can be included with a family activity. Maybe one such activity can be of the family sitting around the table and each family member given a chance to share the things they are thankful to have such as their family or friends and neighbors. Everyone can then draw and color a picture that relates to Thanksgiving Day on a prepared paper place mat.
As children grow older include them in family games and helping to set the table or clean up after the meal. As years go by they can transition into a more physical involvement with meal preparation and planning. Family relationships and memories sweeten the bonds of the heart and endear family members together in thankfulness for each other. Children love to be involved with their parents and the holidays such as Thanksgiving can provide the opportunity for parents to have them help out. Whether it is setting the table, helping make the festive decorations, or even just helping to clean up a child will more eagerly participate when an adult is there with them..
Older children can help or learn to fix a salad, mash potatoes, or even bake pumpkin pies. Most young people can help set the table and even clean up. Give them an assignment of planning a game of Thanksgiving. Each person could be asked to write down on a piece of paper all the thing she or she is thankful for in a minute. The one with the most on the list wins. Playing Turkey Bingo can be a fun game for the whole family and the kids can be in charge of getting it organized. This game will require bingo cards to be made to accommodate the name, turkey. Another fun game is to have items that might have been around at the first Thanksgiving. Blindfold someone, let him or her handle an item, and describe what it is. If they guess all the items, they win. The winner receives a small bag of candy corn. To help include the children in Thanksgiving preparation give them assignments that meet their capabilities and at the same time can be fun for them. Younger children can fix brown paper (rolls of brown paper can be purchased at the local home improvement store) place mats decorated with pictures of turkeys that have been drawn on or cut out and pasted on it. Happy Thanksgiving can be drawn on foam cups or by sticking Thanksgiving stickers on them for a more festive look. Small children can play act the first Thanksgiving or tell a story of their own about what Thanksgiving means to them
Thanksgiving preparations is all about families coming together to help both adults and children feel gratitude for the blessings they have as a family. Establishing family traditions when children are young will be a memory maker and possibly a tradition in their own families. The main thing is to do things together and have a central custom that the family does on Thanksgiving together that includes the children.
In today’s times, when the family is being attacked on all sides by divorce, drugs, immorality, and economic conditions, Thanksgiving Day can be glue that helps to hold the family together. By including children in Thanksgiving preparations, you may have helped to thwart off some of these problems that invade the family structure. Showing love and commuicating with each other in an attitude of gratitude brings happiness and the spirit of thanksgiving into the home. These moments of family times will be long remembered and often talked about when the children are older.
