In a word Yes children and thankfulness can be mixed here is some ideas to teach  your Kids to be Thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to teach your kids about being thankful. Here are some ideas to teach your children how to appreciate the blessings in their lives.

Giving Thanks Place-mats
The goal of this craft is to create a collage filled with drawings and pictures of all the things your children are thankful for. Cut photos from magazines, or print some photos from your computer. Older children can write captions under the photos or draw their own. Be sure to put the child’s name and the year on it.

If you make this collage from two standard letter size pieces of construction paper taped side-by-side, you can take the completed collage to a copy shop when you’re done and have it laminated. It then becomes a place-mat that you can use every Thanksgiving for years to come.

Thankful Paper Chain
Another way to remind your children of their blessings is to create a paper chain. This is similar to a regular paper chain – where you cut strips of paper and connect them together as loops, but there’s one difference. You write on the strips of paper before you connect them. Write the things you are thankful for with your children. For instance, “Grandma plays games with me” or “My teacher is nice.” The fun part of this activity is to make the chain as long as possible – showing all your blessings. If you’d like to keep this up during Christmas, just use green and white paper.

Thanksgiving Tree
This is another take on the idea above and works really well if you have several kids in the family. Get each child to trace their hand on yellow, red, or brown construction paper. Cut out the hand shapes and write (or have the child write) what they are thankful for on the hand shape. Cut a tree trunk shape out of brown construction paper. Glue it on a large piece of poster board. Let the kids add their hand shapes as leaves above the tree trunk, turning it into a beautiful fall colored tree.

Thankful Book
This idea is similar to the others, except it’s more of a keepsake. Purchase a photo album or scrapbook kit and make a “blessings” theme. Add photos of loved ones, including stories about why they are special to you. Also, include pages of your favorite foods, favorite stories, favorite movies and all the other things that make you happy. Any time your kids feel down, you can open your blessing book to see all the reasons you have to be happy – and thankful for the blessings in your life.

IF your in need of some fresh new ideas and tops for thanksgiving I suggest checking out Your Christmas Gift.  Yea its a Christmas site however they still share fun ideas for holidays other then Christmas.  Every holiday they share great gift ideas  and tips to help you have the best holiday possible.

I found some fun crafts to do with your children for Thanksgiving. Spending time creating Thanksgiving crafts with your kids can turn a holiday that isn’t quite as exciting as getting Halloween candy or Christmas gifts into a fun kid’s day!

Turkey Apple
Turkey apples are a fun craft to make with the kids as well as a healthy snack. You will need an apple, 6 toothpicks, 1 large and 5 miniature marshmallows as well as some raisins and one piece of candy corn for each turkey.

Set the apple stem up on a flat surface. Stick a toothpick in the top part of one side of the apple. Add the large marshmallow to the top of the toothpick. Decorate the face of the turkey with two raisins as eyes and stick the candy corn in upside down into the marshmallow to make the beak.

Thread each of the remaining toothpicks with 3 raisins, and then top it off with one of the miniature marshmallows. These will be the tail feathers of your turkey. Stick the 4 toothpicks evenly spaced on the opposite side of the top of the apple.

Corn Collage
Cut a basic corn shape out of yellow construction paper. Tear little pieces of yellow and purple tissue paper and crumble them into little balls. Glue them on the corn shape to represent kernels of corn. Cut leaf shapes out of green construction paper and glue them behind your ear of corn.

Pilgrim Hat
You need a large paper grocery bag and some construction paper in black and yellow for each child. Fold the rim of the bag over to make a brim for the hat. Then cut a large strip of black construction paper and tape or glue it around the hat. Cut a belt buckle shape out of the yellow construction paper and glue it to the belt in the front of the hat.

Turkey Handprint crafts
This craft is a family tradition in many homes. First, outline your child’s foot once on a piece of brown construction paper. Then, outline her hands twice on red or yellow construction paper. Cut a beak out of orange construction paper.

Of course, if you visit craft stores like Michaels or online craft supply stores, like Oriental Trading, you’ll find thousands of craft ideas for your kids. Oriental Trading offers foam leaves, felt Pilgrim hats, quilts in fall colors, foam turkeys, stickers, craft kits and more.

Thanksgiving is a special time of the year. It’s a time for families to get together and celebrate everything they have to be thankful for

Help make this Thanksgiving extra special for the kids by trying one of these fun Thanksgiving ideas:

Thanksgiving Crafts – Make cornucopias out of construction paper and fill with dried berries, twigs, leaves and other autumn findings. Use them as fun thanksgiving decorations.

Thanksgiving Treats – Bake a thanksgiving cake by following a simple cake recipe and decorating in a Thanksgiving theme. Cupcakes are always a big hit too. Read the rest of this entry »

That Make Your Holiday Special

Show your friends and family just how much they mean to you this Thanksgiving season. Here are a few decorations that will make this Thanksgiving one that will be remembered for many years to come.

Make your Thanksgiving table a thing of beauty with a table runner with golds, browns, or burnt orange colors. Emboss the table runner with stamps in fruit and nut shapes or use iron-on decals to decorate your table runner.

Buy several pillar candles in one solid color and place each on silk fall leaves. Group your candles in various heights and place a few nuts or small gourds at the base of the candles for a special fall look.

Decorate your Thanksgiving buffet table with fresh fruits, vegetables, and nuts in brass or silver bowls and baskets. You can also use artificial fruits and vegetables if you want to keep your beautiful buffet table in place for several weeks or the entire month. Read the rest of this entry »

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Moms love to find great deals right? The frugal side of me is always pondering on how I can save the family money each month. If you sit down and see how much you spend on your phone bill, clothes, grocery bill and entertainment, the number may actually leave you with your mouth open. Make it your goal each month to find ways on how you can save in each of these categories.

If you have family long distance, your phone bill is probably reaching high numbers each month. The best way that I save our family each month is going with VOIP (Voice Over Internet Phone). You get unlimited long distance each month and all the bells and whistles that come with your regular landline phone. Most average prices for VOIP are around 25.00 each month. We cut our phone bill in half by just using VOIP each month.
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Thanksgiving will be here before you know it and if your like me you need a list to make sure you get it together in time and with less stress than most major events cause the cook. I hope you will find the tips below very useful in your holiday preparation.

1. Write out your menu Thanksgiving dinner probably isn’t the best meal to try a new main dish out on your guests so I recommend sticking with your families favorites for this special meal.

2. Find Recipes If you will be using recipes that you are not familiar with it is a good idea to have these recipes looked up and copied off so you can get to them easily.
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Everyone is raving about Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. They are one of the most useful creating tools created to date. Visitors to my web site have shared their favorite uses for their “magic” erasers. If you haven’t tried them yet, you better find out what you’re missing!

Appliances:

- Removes build-up from the bottom of a non-stick iron
- Cleans stainless steel finish appliances
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With homework, choir, cub scouts, and tae kwon do, who has energy to prepare a appetizing meal for the kids after school? You do! You will have time if you prepare an easy to cook kids’ meal.

Of course it’s effortless to throw a hotdog in the microwave or place a tortilla in a frying pan on top of the stove, add some cheese and ninety seconds later have a simple quesadilla, but what’s the excitement in that? Casseroles or one-pot dishes generally go over well with the kids; and are quick to throw together.

Taste this quick recipe:
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In a nutshell I don’t think you can ever truly enjoy all the details involved with homemaking. You might be proficient in one area or enjoy another as a hobby but those areas are usually the crafty (think sewing) parts or those involving food (cooking gourmet meals).

Bathroom cleaning? Laundry? Forget it! Although I truly do think I enjoy cleaning sometimes I really can’t stand doing laundry and I know few who do.

There are few who enjoy all the aspects involved in homemaking and I’ve yet to find a person who does.

But instead of trying to make yourself enjoy the tedious chores needed for daily living what you can come to enjoy is doing these tasks for those you love. For your children, your spouse, those you know who are in need. It makes a world of difference to put on a selfless air when accomplishing homemaking tasks and think of those who are blessed by your efforts.
Next time you scrub that toilet think of how special your children are and how wonderful it is that you are able to provide them with a germ free bathroom.
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