Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, - a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days,
But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise.
~George Herbert

We started our Thanksgiving tree yesterday, with much enthusiasm from my three year old. Our humble tree is certainly, um . . . humble, as mom cannot draw branches worth 1/2 a cent, but Elise livened up our posterboard tree with a drawing of a tomato, apple with a worm coming out of it, a bird and a bird house. The Crawford Familiy Thanksgiving Tree, tacked up on the wall in the hall just outside the kitchen, is already filling up with leaves of thanksgiving.

The tree has helped get the homemaking/mothering gears rolling and today I am organizing for the rest of the month; Thanksgiving themed activities, stories, songs, and verses to fill our month with purposeful, fun, somewhat creative ways to learn about history and the greatness of our Lord. I post this mostly to organize and motivate myself, but also on the odd chance that someone else might benefit as well.

Surely many of you will laugh at the great simplicity of my activites and ideas, but perhaps there are a few out there like myself who are easily overwhelmed by crafts or who are new to mothering as I am and need to keep it simple, easy and basic.

Activities: All you need for these are construction paper, scissors, glue, tape, toilet paper tubes, crayons, pens or tempera paint if you are wild. Not only am I not crafty, I am cheap.

Place Cards - Make simple place cards using blank stationary note cards. Write each person’s name on the front and decorate if desired. Last year I cut out construction paper leaves, let Elise color them and then glued them on. Advanced, I know! Inside write a quote about Thanksgiving on the top and a verse on the bottom. As Thanksgiving dinner came to an end last year, we let our food settle before dessert while taking turns reading quotes and verses. Google “Thanksgiving Quotes” to find a few bits of comic relief. Some families need that . . . Quote Garden has some great quotes. I liked the ones on this Baptist site as well. This worked well and helped get everyone involved, even guests, in a non-threatening manner.

~ Chain of Thanks - Cut pices of construction paper to be used for a chain. Starting on Nov. 1st (or soon thereafter!) share a verse about gratitude or thanksgiving with your children and have them write something they are thankful for on one piece of paper for the chain. Do this each day until Thanksgiving and use the chain as decoration.

~ Blessings Journaling - On Thanksgiving day, in the morning or around the table or over dessert have each person share things they are thankful for. Record these thanksgivings in a book or on a piece of paper to be scrapbooked later with pictures of Thanksgiving and favorite verses. Each Thanksgiving read the lists from previous years and remember the faithful goodness of God given to us year after year. Be sure to include any guests!

~ Hands and Feet Turkey - This is a simple favorite. On brown paper, trace your children’s feet. Glue the feet together at the heel, so that the feet fan out a bit at the toes. Heel up, this is the body of the turkey. Draw or cut out eyes, beak and wattle. Cut out little orange turkey legs and glue ‘em on. Trace your children’s hands in different color papers. Glue one orange hand on each side of the turkey for wings and fan out a few other hands to glue behind the turkey as his tail. Isn’t that easy and cute?

~ Feather Headdress Napkin Rings - Cut a 1 1/4 inch wide ring from a tissue tube and paint or color it with pens. Glue construction paper feathers to the inside of the tube. Voila! Napkin rings!

~ Guess Who’s Thankful? - Another idea for family time after the turkey has been savored is to hand each person a pen and piece of paper to write down 6 things they are thankful for. Gather the lists together, shuffle and read each aloud, having everyone guess whose it is.

Songs:

~ “Give Thanks to The Lord“ from Steve Green’s “Hide ‘em in Your Heart” DVD (verses put to song)
~ “A Grateful Heart is Happy Heart” from Veggie Tales “Madame Blueberry”
“~ I Will Enter His Gates“ - Old praise song from who knows where! - uses only scripture lyrics.

Verses of Thanksgiving - We will just read these few verses throughout the month over breakfast and dinner and talk about what they mean with the girls.

~ Deuteronomy 7:9 - Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.

~ Isaiah 25:1 - O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

~ Psalm 139:14 - I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

Stories for Thanksgiving

Barbra Curtis at Mommy Life has a good-looking list of books for the Thanksgiving season. I have yet to try out any on our family, so we will be off to the book store tomorrow.

As I dozed on the couch again last night, I spent my last conscious thoughts thinking about what books and stories to focus on for our month of Thanksgiving. I want my children to know the actual story of how this American holiday began, of course. Beyond that, I want to read stories that inspire gratitude in my children, stories that show them why gratitude is the proper and natural response of someone who knows God and sees what He has done. Which stories would best accomplish this? Good heavens, most of the Old Testament at least! I love all kinds of stories, but it freshly occured to me that God has written down specific stories for specific reasons. He knows our hearts and best how to penetrate them.

We read Bible stories nightly to the girls before bed, and I think we will just continue our habit. We will focus on the stories of the pentetuch which the girls are learning about at church and talk together about the awesome care and provision the Lord gives to His people, which we can rely upon, rejoice in and be every grateful for.

I would LOVE for you to share any other ideas, verses, and especially stories in the comments.