It seems everyone and their mother has a thankful tree this month. Here is ours back on the first day. We each hang a leaf before dinner and I also try and read a Thanksgiving book at the same time (see below for some decent ones). I hunted in the park all of October to find the perfect branches, but it wasn't until after a big wind storm that I found some good ones. 
I was going to use real leaves at first but then I remembered that one of our cats ate a leaf display I put out one year. I love using that little bowl on a pedestal for the leaves-in-waiting. My great-grandfather made it.
Reading Assignment:
In November
Thank You, Thanksgiving
Thanks for Thanksgiving
The Thanksgiving Door
The Ugly Pumpkin
Thanksgiving With Me
Setting the Turkeys Free
Friday, November 13, 2009
Leaves of Gratitute
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6 comments:
Very nice idea, and that little bowl your great-grandfather made is beautiful.
Okay, I learned last night that we need to graciously accept a compliment and then privately thank God for it later, instead of not accepting the compliment to appear humble...So, that being said, I want to compliment you. I don't even know you, but you have totally inspired me! I know that your ideas have inspired me because I am now taking my children to the bank and using it as a "teachable moment" and showing them how numbers work as I make a deposit at the bank. The first thing I did was take my 5 year old and show her that the filter in our heater vent was too small, we measured it and then we talked about how we needed one 25 inches long instead of 24 inches. Then I took her to Home Depot and she actually found the one that was 25 inches long, not the right width, but she owned the project! Okay, I know this is not my blog, nor do I have one, but I wanted you to know that from the bottom of my heart you have truly inspired me to seize daily opportunities to instruct my children. When we took a walk at the park, we looked for leaves to do art with, when we were there, we took chalk and practiced our letters and shapes on the nice smooth cement there. I made bread later and had the 2 year old and 5 year old roll them into breadsticks for dinner. No, I'm not supermom, but I am starting to enjoy this life of being a stay at home mom instead of feeling sorry for myself that I'm all alone all day long without much adult human interaction. Please keep blogging, even the uninteresting things, because actually, even those are just reality. Life is in the dull things too! By the way, my daughter happily counted beads on the bead stair and happily practiced writing her numbers from 1 to 10, all Montessori materials. It gave me a whole hour to cook dinner without fighting between the siblings. Oh the joy of happy and contented children. I think I wasn't directing their play because I thought that children should just "play" but I think that directing them to do an activity (something I've now learned from you) is okay because it teaches them and gives us some sanity. By the way, we just recently, three weeks ago turned off our T.V. due to a great article that I read about developing children's brains and these ideas are just what I needed. Keep blogging and loving on your children. Sorry for such a long comment, but I had to let you know that I'm in Sacramento, CA, a whole country away and I am being influenced by your life.
Steph: Thanks for such a nice comment! It is inspiring to hear other moms finding ways to get their kids involved with the little things. I forget to do that sometimes, too. I think, "Ah! I just want to get this done!" Everything is a journey. And an imperfect journey at that!
That's neat. I'll have to try something like that with C when she's a bit older!
It's funny to read all of the Thanksgiving posts on blogs lately - I live in Canada, and our Thanksgiving was over a month ago!
I just discovered your blog and it is wonderful! Thank you so much! I love your ideas and book suggestions.
I like the idea of using real tree branches. I thought about doing it that way this year but used a paper one. Maybe next year.
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