Giving "Thank Yous"... for Dinosaurs

The holidays are here and it is time for everyone to become nostalgic about their quality of life and the people in it. I try to incorporate a thankful spirit year around so that "giving thanks" isn't seen as a seasonal response to getting gifts at Christmas.

Creating a more thankful child goes far beyond just making them say "thank you" after they receive something. We try to take time every evening to give thanks or be thankful for something. We go around the circle and we each say one thing we are thankful for out loud. No one is aloud to make negative comments and honesty is encouraged. Here are a few things that have made out list:

• Mommy
• Family and specific family members
• Food
• Water
• Toilet
• Van
• Activities done that day
• Our home
• Refrigerator
• Farmers
• Daddy
• Friends
• School and teachers
  

The list is far more extensive than this. The kids realize on a micro scale that the convenience that is western life and culture is because someone somewhere else has either made a sacrifice or used money to provide something they like.

One day my oldest daughter asked me about dinosaurs.

5 year old: "Mom what purpose do dinosaurs serve. I mean, we can't see them."

Me: "Well dinosaurs are in the ground. They lived once and now they are dead. So their bodies decomposed beneath the earth's surface."

5 year old: "Oh so like what do they do down there?"

Me: "Well nothing I guess. I mean it's been so long since they've been alive. They are... gasoline and fossil fuel."

5 year old: " Gasoline that goes in our car!? Well I'm thankful for dinosaurs then, because if they didn't die and become gas, we wouldn't be able to go anywhere."

Me: "Well from an evolutionary standpoint I guess that is something to be thankful for."