The calendar year coming to an end is a good time to think of all the reasons that your homeschool students can say “Thank You.” The energy of gratitude is one which promotes a lot of good will. Actively encourage your homeschoolers to think of ten random things that they are grateful for this season at bedtime. This brings them into the spirit of gratitude. Besides merely saying what they are grateful for, now is a good time of the year to actively seek out opportunities to thank people. Here are some exercises that the homeschool teacher can help conduct.
Thank You Notes
Handwritten thank you notes are a pleasure for anyone to recieve. Have your homeschool student speak about people who have helped them in any way all through the year. Make a short list of no more than ten people. The list can include members of the family to live with them. Now have your homeschool students sit down and write out thank you note sto each person on the list. They don’t have to be very long. A simple template that can be followed is – Dear (name of person), thank you for helping me this year with (action they did to help). I am grateful to you. Sign with the child’s name to end. Keep it simple and heartfelt.
Compliments and Gifts
Another way for homeschool students to exercise gratitude is with giving heartfelt compliments to those individuals that they admire. Again have them make out a short list of five people they like. They must not be members of the family who live with them in the same home. Ask them to think of reasons why the homeschool sctudents admire these individuals. Have them distill it down to a trait such as honesty, loyalty, selflessness, moral courage, sensitivity. The homeschool teacher may have to do some prep ahead of time with the list of traits so that it’s faster when doing the exercise with the children. Now have them add some handmade gift to the compliment and personally deliver to each of the five individuals on the list.
