Adding Up Homeschool: Gratitude and Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween. It was extremely cold in my part of the world, so not many trick or treaters out and about. Now that Halloween is over, evidence of the excitement of Christmas can be felt in all the local stores. Poor Thanksgiving just gets lost in the shuffle and seems to be nothing more than a big meal and a football game.

I want my kids to appreciate Thanksgiving and those that came to this continent so long ago, so I have decided to take the month of November to focus on Thanks and Gratitude and the stories of Thanksgiving.

In 1621 the pilgrims of Plymouth and the Wampanoag Indians shared a harvest feast that is known as the first Thanksgiving meal. Days of Thanksgiving were celebrated in the colonies of America for 2 decades after this first feast before it became a national holiday. In 1863 during the Civil War Abraham Lincoln declared a national day of Thanksgiving to be celebrated in November.

After a very hard year, the pilgrims enjoyed a plentiful harvest. In celebration Governor William Bradford declared a day of Thanksgiving for all colonists and nearby Indians. Indians present include Squanto and Cheif Massasoit. There were 90 Indian men and 50 pilgrims in attendance that day.

My plan to bring focus on a month of Thanksgiving includes sharing the story of Thanksgiving, Scriptures, songs, and gratitude journals.

Day 1: Pick a few or all of the following ideas:
Take time to write in a gratitude journal or make a gratitude tree.
Read the Story of the Ten Lepers and talk about the one that came back and said thanks.
Start your day out with a song of Thanksgiving.