Happy Thanksgiving! I absolutely love this season. And this year? It’s especially precious to me.

For most of us, 2020 has been a challenging year. It’s been full of unknowns, canceled plans, and trials. However, giving thanks for what we do have is always available and consistent. Gratitude is an important practice for me and it’s something I hope to instill in my children, so any opportunity to think about our blessings is gold!

In the past we’ve done gratitude trees or jars, but this year I wanted to try creating a gratitude journal for children and sharing it with all of you!

This is a little booklet you can just print out at home. I will provide the free download below. Each page has different prompts to get the kids thinking about what they are thankful for. There is a space to write them and a space for drawing/coloring (so it can be used for both older or younger children). I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

You will need:

Gratitude journal printout (free download at the end of this post!)
Stapler
Crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc.

Instructions:

Print out gratitude journal (free download found below). Note: Don't have a printer or out of ink? Grab some paper and crayons and with your child, and come up with all the things that make them happy! It can be super simple, and just acknowledging the good in their lives is what's important!
Fold each of the papers with prompts on them in half (like a book) and stack them on top of each other. Note: you will have some blank pages in between once they are folded, but we used these as extra pages to color on.
Then fold the gratitude journal "cover" in the opposite direction so that it wraps around the folded sides of the prompt pages.
Staple the left edge of the papers, binding your journal together.
Take your crayons/colored pencils/markers/etc. and fill in the journal with your child using the prompts. My five year old needed little help with this, but I had to explain each of the pages to my three-year-old. She loved doing the drawings! The last two pages are left open for anything else they want to add to their gratitude journal.
Enjoy!