By Amy Darger-Stewart, FCPL Early Literacy Assistant

Teaching your children to be grateful can have positive benefits for their entire life. A 2019 study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies found that gratitude is linked to happiness in children by age five. This means that instilling gratitude in your kids at a young age could help them grow up to be happier people.

At times, it can be easy to focus on the things that go wrong rather than the things that go right for us. That can be especially difficult for still-developing brains. That is why it is so important to actively teach and practice an attitude of gratitude as children grow.

Saying thank you is good way to help children start learning this important skill. Acknowledging that someone has been kind or helped you is important and is a valuable skill to learn early. But saying thank you is just one way children can learn to express gratitude. Here are some simple activities that you can do with your child to practice other ways to be grateful.

• Make a Gratitude Calendar—Look for one thing each day that was good.
• Smile—What made you smile today?
• Write a note or draw a picture—Send a kind note to someone.
• Gratitude paper chain—Make a paper chain and write something you are grateful for on each link. The longer the chain, the better!
• Ask questions about thank you—Notice the things you have to be grateful for. How does that kindness or gift make you feel?
• Perform acts of kindness.
• Gratitude alphabet—Think of something that starts with each letter of the alphabet you are grateful for