Saturday, November 8, 2014

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.

19 comments:

  1. I absolutely love this! This is something I'm going to copy when my daughter is older. It's so important to remind ourselves what we're thankful for.

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    1. Glad you like it Carolina! I like that it was totally kid created, makes them that much more proud~!! Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

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  2. Great way of counting one's blessings! : )

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    1. Thank you! I can't wait to read them on Thanksgiving day!!

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  3. Hi Susen, The buckets turned out super cute and it's nice the kids really enjoyed making them while taking time to think about what they are thankful for.

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    1. Thanks, Katie! I really enjoyed watching them create 'their' bucket!

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  4. What a great idea! We all need to remember to be thankful!

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  5. What a lovely idea :D Thanks for linking up with Tuesday Tutorials #pintorials

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  6. I love the idea of reading them aloud on Thanksgiving - what a great family activity! #FrugalFamily

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  8. This is so cute! Great idea and way to teach gratitude this Thanksgiving! Thanks for linking up with us at Mommy Needs a Timeout Thursday! See you again this week! Party starts Wednesday at 8pm EST.
    Lauren
    http://twintestedpinapproved.wordpress.com

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    1. Glad you like it! Just linked up again. Thanks for hosting a fun linky!

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  9. Such a cute idea! Thanks so much for sharing it with us at On Display Thursday! We look forward to seeing you again this Wednesday night at 9 pm CST! http://www.thedomesticheart.com

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  10. What a great idea to teach gratitude! I just wanted to let you know that I have a kids activities submission site (Simply Creative Kids) and I am linking to this post if you don't mind. You are welcome to submit your projects to my site if you'd like.

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    1. That's great Alyssa, thanks!! I appreciate that and I appreciate you stopping by!!

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