Today’s Parenting Tip:

Decide:     You can teach your child to appreciate what he has.

Practice:   Create a new gift ritual for special occasions today. Make sure it includes ways for your child to pay attention to how much he already has, what he is receiving and who is giving it to him. Plan to try it out at the next special occasion in your family – adult or child. Here are a couple of suggestions.

• Make the gift giving stretch out over time by opening a gift every hour or at each meal. After opening a gift, take the time to talk about who gave it and why that person might have selected it. Take a picture of it with your child and send the picture as part of a thank you note.
• Before a gift occasion, clean up toys and make room for new ones. Either donate some or retire some to a storage box for a while.

Let us know which tips you like the best or any others you think of that you want to pass along to others.

Come back each day for another good parenting decision and how to practice it.

Today’s Decide and Practice daily parenting tip was inspired by our featured picture book, KATIE AND THE PUPPY NEXT DOOR.  Read the book to a child in your life each day as a reminder of what you are deciding and practicing that day.

Come back each day for another good parenting decision and how to practice it. (Each day’s activity will also be posted on Daily Parenting Tips page for easy access.)

Read the whole story at Kids and Sharing.