Kathianne
11-25-2012, 01:40 AM
An awesome article. This year my daughter, no child, began 11/1 to write things she's thankful for. It had all sorts of little and big things. From chapstick to the discovery of antibiotics. Two days before Thanksgiving, she mentioned her brothers and step-brothers. The day before, her parents. Thanksgiving was her husband.
http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/23/after-the-turkey-how-to-cultivate-gratitude-in-kids/?iid=hl-main-lead
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/23/after-the-turkey-how-to-cultivate-gratitude-in-kids/#ixzz2DDJaQpNr
After the Turkey, How to Cultivate Gratitude in Kids?
By Bonnie Rochman (http://healthland.time.com/author/brochman/)Nov. 23, 2012
...
Gratitude is an attitude, the expression goes. I don’t think it comes naturally; it’s learned. After all, how are kids to understand they should be grateful for food and shelter and clothing if they’ve always been fed and housed and clothed since the minute they were born?
It just might come down to prompting them, which is exactly what the University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center promotes with their “community gratitude journal (http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/raising_happiness/post/gratitude_journal_the_contagious_exuberance_of_chi ldren).” Research has found it’s effective, according to my colleague, Maia Szalavitz, who wrote earlier this week (http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/22/why-gratitude-isnt-just-for-thanksgiving/) about the impact of intentional gratitude on kids:
The most common ways to improve gratitude— making “gratitude lists” or keeping a daily diary focused on the things you are grateful for — build on this positive-focused thinking and are often a critical part of 12-step programs for addictions. And they are effective, as a study (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022440507000386) tracking feelings of thanks and school satisfaction among a group of sixth and seventh graders showed. In the study, 221 children were assigned to write either a daily list of five things they were most grateful for, or of the hassles they experienced, or no list at all. The gratitude group reported greater satisfaction with school three weeks later compared to the other kids, especially those who focused on hassles.
Christine Carter, the director of Greater Good Parents and author of Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345515617?ie=UTF8&tag=gregooscicen-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345515617), offers an idea (http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/raising_happiness/post/holiday_gratitude_traditions_RH)from her own family, which keeps a basket of colorful cards out beginning in December. Visitors write something they’re thankful for on the cards. Those notes are then used to create “gratitude garlands,” which are strung from the doorways of her home.
...
Over at the Huffington Post, Melina Bellows has begun asking her kids (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melina-bellows/thanksgiving_b_2170674.html) each night to think of “something, anything” for which they’re thankful:
Last night, I was lying in bed with my 6-year-old daughter Mackenzie. When I asked her what she was most grateful for, she thought for a long time. Finally she said “Parmigiano cheese.” I tried not to let her see me cracking up. But she’s right, it always comes down to the simple things…when you look at your cup half full, it always is.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/23/after-the-turkey-how-to-cultivate-gratitude-in-kids/#ixzz2DDKZoWsu
http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/23/after-the-turkey-how-to-cultivate-gratitude-in-kids/?iid=hl-main-lead
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/23/after-the-turkey-how-to-cultivate-gratitude-in-kids/#ixzz2DDJaQpNr
After the Turkey, How to Cultivate Gratitude in Kids?
By Bonnie Rochman (http://healthland.time.com/author/brochman/)Nov. 23, 2012
...
Gratitude is an attitude, the expression goes. I don’t think it comes naturally; it’s learned. After all, how are kids to understand they should be grateful for food and shelter and clothing if they’ve always been fed and housed and clothed since the minute they were born?
It just might come down to prompting them, which is exactly what the University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center promotes with their “community gratitude journal (http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/raising_happiness/post/gratitude_journal_the_contagious_exuberance_of_chi ldren).” Research has found it’s effective, according to my colleague, Maia Szalavitz, who wrote earlier this week (http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/22/why-gratitude-isnt-just-for-thanksgiving/) about the impact of intentional gratitude on kids:
The most common ways to improve gratitude— making “gratitude lists” or keeping a daily diary focused on the things you are grateful for — build on this positive-focused thinking and are often a critical part of 12-step programs for addictions. And they are effective, as a study (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022440507000386) tracking feelings of thanks and school satisfaction among a group of sixth and seventh graders showed. In the study, 221 children were assigned to write either a daily list of five things they were most grateful for, or of the hassles they experienced, or no list at all. The gratitude group reported greater satisfaction with school three weeks later compared to the other kids, especially those who focused on hassles.
Christine Carter, the director of Greater Good Parents and author of Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345515617?ie=UTF8&tag=gregooscicen-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345515617), offers an idea (http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/raising_happiness/post/holiday_gratitude_traditions_RH)from her own family, which keeps a basket of colorful cards out beginning in December. Visitors write something they’re thankful for on the cards. Those notes are then used to create “gratitude garlands,” which are strung from the doorways of her home.
...
Over at the Huffington Post, Melina Bellows has begun asking her kids (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melina-bellows/thanksgiving_b_2170674.html) each night to think of “something, anything” for which they’re thankful:
Last night, I was lying in bed with my 6-year-old daughter Mackenzie. When I asked her what she was most grateful for, she thought for a long time. Finally she said “Parmigiano cheese.” I tried not to let her see me cracking up. But she’s right, it always comes down to the simple things…when you look at your cup half full, it always is.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/23/after-the-turkey-how-to-cultivate-gratitude-in-kids/#ixzz2DDKZoWsu