Thanksgiving - Get Your Children to Think About It

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

"See abc's" spells Thanksgiving . . . C H I L D R E N

At this Thanksgiving time of the year, let's sit down with our kids or grandkids and teach them some things about Thanksgiving and what gratitude means and why the world needs this virtue so desperately.

How much do your children really know about Thanksgiving?  Do they remember much from that one or two years in school where they learned the facts about it?  The little ones need to understand it too.  Now it seems to be just the holiday that needs to hurry past before we get out the Christmas decorations and presents!  So, this year how about having an "interesting factoid" discussion about Thanksgiving with the whole family and ask questions about it to see how much they know about this wonderful holiday, and provide a teaching moment for the things they don't know?

Here's a few questions you could ask:

1.  Who was at the first Thanksgiving?    Pilgrims and Indians
2.  Did they eat turkey?  No
3.  Were the Indians friendly?  Yes
4.  Were the pilgrims friendly?  Yes
5.  Where did the pilgrims come from?  Plymouth, England - across the Atlantic Ocean
6.  What was the name of the ship that brought them?  The May Flower
7.  What did they call the place they settled?  Plymouth Rock
8.  Where is Plymouth Rock?  In what now is the state of Massachusetts
9.  What year did they hold the first Thanksgiving?  1621
10.  How long ago was that?  392 years . . . almost 400 years ago!
11.  Which Indian tribe shared in the first Thanksgiving?  The Wampanoag Indians, and they taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land.
12.  What President made Thanksgiving a national holiday?  Abraham Lincoln
13.  Are Pilgrims and Pioneers the same thing?  No.  The pioneers are people who crossed the plains, moving from the Eastern states to what are now the Western states.  This didn't happen until the 1800's.

Ask your children to tell you yes or no if they think the pilgrims and Indians ate these foods.  Mix up foods from the two lists:
*  Food they did not have:  Mashed potatoes, pumpkin pies, popcorn, milk, corn on the cob, and cranberries 
*  Food they could have had:  Lobster, rabbit, chicken, fish, squashes, beans, chestnuts, hickory nuts, onions, leeks, dried fruits, maple syrup and honey, radishes, cabbage, carrots, eggs, and goat cheese 

My daughter's family's gratitude tree.  Something they are grateful for is written on each leaf.  Great idea!

End your discussion with the traditional telling of things you are grateful.  And, I would write them down in a long list.  I also encourage all of you to make sure that your gratitude/blessing lists are ten times longer than your Christmas lists for Santa!

Doreese

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