I've always wanted to be one of those moms who is organized to have a collection of Thanksgiving books for kids ready and waiting to use during the month of November.
This year was finally that year!
I searched and curated all the best Thanksgiving kids' books for you and your children to enjoy during this Thanksgiving season. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Pro tip: If you view any of these books on Amazon using a desktop computer, you will have the option to “Look Inside.” This option is not available on mobile devices.
History of Thanksgiving
These books will introduce your children to the history behind why we celebrate Thanksgiving.
1. The First Thanksgiving
An easy reader for grades 1-3, this book is a concise history of the Pilgrim's journey to America and their first winter.
2. Squanto's Journey
A brief history of Squanto's time in Europe, and how he used his knowledge of the English language and his skills as a native American to help the Pilgrims through their first winter in America.
3. Thank you, Sarah
A silly story that introduces children to the woman who worked tirelessly to make Thanksgiving Day a national holiday. Several pages of interesting historical facts and timelines are included in the back of the book.
Modern History
These books share stories of modern immigrants, and describe their thankfulness to live in a country where they have freedom to worship God as the Pilgrims did.
4. Molly's Pilgrim
This is the story of Russian immigrants who learn about the American Thanksgiving holiday, and find that they relate to the same desire for freedom of religion that the Pilgrims had.
5. How Many Days to America
This story is about all immigrants, the difficulties they often face in their journey to America, and the thankfulness they have for the opportunity to move to a free country.
For Toddlers and Preschoolers
Of course I need to include some cute Thanksgiving picture books for the little ones!
6.Thankful Together
I especially like this one because it specifically thanks God. Many books only say “I'm thankful for ___,” but this one specifically says, “Thank you, God, for ____.”
7. Squirrel Says Thank You
This one also specifically thanks God for the blessings we have, like trees, snowflakes, and family.
Counting our Blessings
Books that will cultivate an atmosphere of gratitude in your home.
8. Thanks for Thanksgiving
Although the words are very simple, this book includes captivating, detailed artwork on each page.
9. Thankful
Another simplistic book with reminders of all the many things for which we can be thankful.
10. The Memory Cupboard
A sentimental book that reminds children that it's people and memories that are important, not things.
11. Thank you, God
This book is so beautiful and so much fun! Each page has an envelope or two containing a card of thankfulness written to God for something specific. My children really enjoy opening each envelope to find out what's written on the card inside.
Just for Fun
Reading about Thanksgiving for kids doesn't always need to be for the sake of learning. I hope your children enjoy reading just for the love of it!
12. An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving
How can you go wrong with a classic story by Lousia May Alcott?
How to purchase these Thanksgiving books for kids
Option 1: Purchase from Amazon:
You can click on any individual book above, or visit this link to see them all in one place on Amazon.
Option 2: Purchase from Book Outlet:
This is one of my favorite places to shop for books! I often find exactly the book I'm looking for at prices much less than other retailers. Go through this link to get a $5 coupon, then search for the title of the book you want. As of writing this blog post, they currently have many of the titles on the list above in stock for $2-$3 per book.
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Valentine's Day is coming up SOON!
I try to make Valentines for my kids to give out that have a Bible verse or other scriptural theme.
This year I've come up with these Bible Verse Valentines that feature Proverbs 17:17
What you'll need:
Other Valentine printables:
Thank you to everyone who helped with suggestions for the back-to-school survival kit for college students!
I decided to go with a “self-care” theme, and I'm excited to show you what I included!
I mentioned in my previous post that I had already picked up some Schick Quattro disposable razors since nice razors were one thing I never bought for myself when I was in college.
The other things I added in were:
Fuzzy socks
Note cards
Snack bars
Chocolate
Water Bottle
Cosmetic Bag filled with toiletries, essential oils, lip balm, lip gloss, nail polish, lotion
Prepaid gift card
I know this was a girly package, but for guys, you could do pretty much the same thing; just trade out the items for a manly version and trade the Schick Quattro disposable razors for one of the men's varieties.
I hope this self-care package will help brighten up a rough college day, and I hope you got some ideas of how you can create a nice back-to-school gift for a college student you know!
(Don't forget you or a student you know can still enter the Schick Summer Selfie sweepstakes and be entered to win $10,000 toward college tuition! Details here.)
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Schick®. The opinions and text are all mine.
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I've compiled these ideas based on his current interests, so if you're wondering whether the 4 year old in your life would truly like these, I know my little guy would definitely say yes!
These would really be appropriate for kids anywhere between age 3 and 5.
You can find purchasing information for each item by clicking on its photo below.
1. Ride-on motorcycle
We are SO into motorcycles at our house, and a ride-on would absolutely MAKE HIS DAY!
2. The bounce house would definitely be one of those big splurge gifts. When you consider how many endless hours of fun it would provide it would pay for itself in the long run.
3. Castle blocks
This is something that we already own (it was a previous gift) and it gets a lot of use by my (almost) 4 year old.
4. Scooter
Every boy needs a set of wheels! A scooter is the perfect riding toy for a child who can't yet ride a bike.
5. Bouncy Ball
This is another toy we already own which gets HOURS AND HOURS of use!
6. Baseball pitcher and tee
This is about the age where my boys start showing an interest in sports. A tee is perfect for getting them started and then they will have the automatic pitcher for when theyare a little more advanced.
7. Hexbug
His older brother just got one and I know he would get a kick out of having his own. What is so fascinating about these I don't know, but they seem to love watching them scurry around. They like to make mazes for them out of blocks!
8./9. Soccer ball and goal
It is so cute to watch kids this age kick a soccer ball! They can get pretty good when they practice! My little guy wants to play on a team at the Y as soon as we will let him.
10. Kiwi Crate subscription
We got a sample box and we all loved it (including mom!) It was the perfect thing for doing a project without wearing out a small attention span. Mom loved it because we did a project without dragging out thousands of supplies. Having the exact amount of supplies meant that once the project was completed, the mess was already cleaned up.
One fun thing we like to do with the kids at Valentine's Day is have them give a small gift to their grandparents.
This year, we were given the opportunity to pick out some things at Family Christian to make a small gift basket for them.
We found a plaque in the clearance section that will go nicely in Grandma's newly painted kitchen! We also found some lovely notecards with the words to “Great is they Faithfulness” on them.
For Grandpa, we found Valentine's Day chocolates with Bible verses on them and a coffee cup to go with it.
But of course the part that Grandparents love the best is the pictures of their grandkids!
Everything we do around here has to be super-simple, but we strive for cuteness all at the same time!
So I snapped one “regular” picture of the kids and glued it onto construction paper. I wrote We Love You…
That was the front of the card.
For the inside of the card, I snapped a picture of the kids holding their arms open wide, glued it to the inside, and wrote “This Much!”
I am sure Grandma and Grandpa are going to love their gift from the kids!
Thanksgiving is just a couple days away. Things will slow down around here from now till Christmas. I'll be posting a bit here and there, but I really want to focus on just relaxing, spending time with my family, and meditating on God's goodness.
I hope you all are are having a stress-free holiday season so far! It's not about having everything decorated perfectly or making the most-complimented dishes for the parties you attend. Let go of expectations that rob you of the joy you will have when you meditate on the blessings God has given you.
Now, I don't want to take anything away from what Thanksgiving or Christmas is all about. I don't want to encourage you to focus on things.
I hope you don't go crazy and buy tons of things at Christmas just for the sake of buying them.
But the fact of the matter is
1. We are all shopping for the few gifts that we are planning to give
2. We would all like to pay the lowest prices possible for those things
3. Right now is when the best sales are.
I have been pointing out some of the best deals on my Facebook page, but there are tons more that I could mention but haven't for the sake of not seeming like all I care about is more things.
Do you want to see all the insane deals I find, though? Just during the big sale season from now till Christmas, I'll be sending out emails in real time as I find the lowest prices on things. If you want to see all the deals, here's how it will work:
1. Sign up with your email address and I'll put you on a special “Christmas deals” email list.
2. I will send out multiple emails a day with each crazy deal I find.
3. I will put the actual deal in the subject line so you can decide whether you want to open it or simply delete. (Example: Lincoln Logs Set $11.99)
4. After Christmas I will delete the email list so you don't have to worry about receiving tons of deal emails all year. (Unless you want to. (?) Let me know what you'd like to see happen with that.)
What kinds of things are you looking for? Let me know so I can keep that in mind as I'm sending out emails!