Our Thankful Tree

One of my favorite blogs, 71 Toes, showed a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving with kids. DJ and I think it's very important to teach Taylor to be thankful for everything she has and realize that some families are not as fortunate as we are. I know she is still a little young to really understand the meaning of Thanksgiving but DJ and I don't think it's too early to start.

So this year we started a new tradition for November. A lot of people blog about things they are thankful for all November long but we wanted Taylor to be a big part of it so I followed Shawni's lead and we made a Thankful Tree.

We started with this . . .

Taylor cut out most of the leaves. . .

I just love how hard she is concentrating. Don't mind the bed head and pj's though. I had told her the night before that we'd be working on a craft the next day. Crafting is one of her favorite things so she begged me to let her start it at 7am!

While we waited for the paint on the trunk to dry she colored . . .

She decided the Thankful Tree was so neat that she wanted to make ones for her teachers too. . .

So we practiced her letter and word writing.

 Just look how cute her writing is!

Cutting the leaves took most of the morning so we took a break from our craft and finished up some other things around the house. After dinner we sat at the table with DJ and wrote out everything we are Thankful for. I have an envelope in the kitchen and everyday we are adding a few leaves at a time. Taylor was having so much fun that she wanted to make a leaf for everything: cups, coffee cups, plates etc. Everyday we will add a few more leaves and by Thanksgiving it should be fully covered! (this picture was taken the first night so there have been a lot more leaves added. We also decided hanging it with tape wasn't the best idea)

I love that we can teach Taylor to be Thankful for everything life has provided her thus far and everything it will provide for her. This is a tradition I think we will keep forever and hopefully in a few years we are able to do this with more little ones.