Thanksgiving in Oct

Although thanksgiving day is hardly celebrated in our country, we felt that it is a good tradition for our family to have. Making it an event is hardly an excuse for not giving thanks the rest of the year, but a way we can re-focus as a family and not take each other for granted (ironically, its the people we are closest to that we most likely do!)

This year is our first and I wanted to include everyone under the roof. So that's inclusive of our helper.

I read aloud to Theo and sang Psalm 118:1 from Steve Green album - Hide 'em in your heart. We play this almost everyday cuz Bible verses are best remembered this way with kids. We start with memory and then do object lessons for comprehension.

Then I printed out leaves with a verse on thanksgiving. Then we had everyone colour the leaf and we went around asking each one to:

1) name something they want to thank God for
2) to name a person in the family they thank

Theo moved us by saying "I thank God for wisdom" and I thank papa for strength and helper for strength. I thank God for Theo who is generally an obedient child and husband who take time to cook western food for the family (check over at: I also thank Him for being involved with the kids daily. David thank God for my support so he can finish and graduate in his Masters in ministerial studies.

Our helper thank God for healing her backache and allergy and thank God for understanding employers (hee hee). We thanked her for her hardwork and patience. (hint: its so good for employer-maid relationship and it cost us nothing!)

I then print out thanksgiving points and have them stuck to the leaf. Then we stick a cork coaster beneath and tada! we made a thanksgiving coaster out of it. It serves as a reminder who and what we are thankful for.

by the way, did I mention, I love art the way Kid's do it. Not something that was a teacher's work but made to look like a kid's. ;) Here's Theo's creation.
















We played sequencing with symbols associate with thanksgiving.