Be Thankful Bucket

Throughout the year it's important to teach your children to be thankful.  Thanksgiving gives us even more of an opportunity to talk about and to show thanks.  Both of my children are now at an age where family traditions are beginning  to have more meaning.  My son at 9 has already been enjoying some of our traditions but now that my daughter is 4 they can both enjoy them together.

This year I wanted to document in some way the things we are thankful for.  I wasn't sure how we would do it until I was getting ready to toss an empty ice-cream container into the recycle bin.  Yup, that's when the light bulb went off!! This container is not like the average containers from the grocery store but more of a plastic bucket from a local ice cream parlor.  I thought the container would work perfectly as our thankful bucket!

Because this is a craft I wanted my children to take a part in from beginning to end I let them have full rein with it.  I gave them stickers and crayons and set them free!  The only things I did was stamp out the words THANKFUL FOR on each side of the container as one side is decorated by my son and the other by my daughter.  We also wanted to use some ribbon to cover up the rim of the lid so I used the hot glue gun for that and also to adhere some letters on the top of the lid that say BE THANKFUL.

my son's side of the bucket

my daughter's side of the bucket

Because we do alot of crafts I've seen the ones that are just not a hit and others that the kids really get into.  I'm happy to say that this is one they really got into!  The kids enjoyed using their favorite stickers and my 9 year old enjoyed drawing some pictures and writing his name.  Once the bucket was decorated (but before I added the letters on the lid) I asked my husband to make a slit on top of the lid so we could just slip our thankful notes inside. 

So here's what we'll do, we will be writing down one thing we are thankful for each day leading up to Thanksgiving.  Than on Thanksgiving day we will read all the notes aloud hearing what everyone is thankful for......I can't wait!!

I hope this tradition will be one that my children remember for years to come and one that they may even share with their own families one day.