It is our responsibility as parents to teach our children how to be thankful.

Teaching children to be thankful for what they have will help them become compassionate adults who want to help others.

Here are some ways to teach children of different ages to be thankful.

Parents should start teaching their children to be thankful when they are toddlers.

• Ask your toddler what they are thankful for and have them draw pictures of what they appreciate. These can be hung on the refrigerator as a reminder.
• Parents should spend time talking with their toddlers about how they would feel if they didn’t have those things to be thankful for in their lives. This helps toddlers understand that being thankful feels good, so they recognize thankfulness is a positive emotion.
• Toddlers should also be taught to be thankful for people and emotions instead of just things.

Teaching an older child to be thankful is different.

It is often easier to teach elementary age children or even teens to be thankful by showing them people who don’t have all the things to be thankful for that they have.

• Taking children to volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter can open their eyes and help them appreciate what they have.
• Parents can go with their kids to volunteer for local veterans’ associations or battered women’s shelters.  This may help your child become aware of how difficult life could be and thus make your child more thankful for what he/she has.

Children have a way of learning to be thankful when they understand that other people don’t have all that they do.

Do you have tips on how to teach a child to be thankful? Please share them with our readers in the comments below.