Perseverance is a critical character trait not only to live a successful life, but more importantly to live a Christian life. Helping your kids develop more perseverance is not always easy or fun. Thanksgiving is one of those rare occasions when perseverance lessons can actually be enjoyable and helpful to you and your kids.
If your kids aren’t normally allowed to help with cooking tasks, this Thanksgiving perseverance training may take a little more patience on your part. The great thing about preparing the Thanksgiving meal is that there are tasks even the youngest of children can perform that help them develop perseverance.
These are some of the tasks that are great for teaching kids perseverance.
- Tearing the bread for stuffing or dressing. Almost every recipe calls for tearing quite a bit of bread into tiny pieces. In our house, we have a super large bowl we use so there is plenty of room for tiny hands to search for unturned pieces without spilling already torn pieces on the work space.
- Making decorated place cards for everyone. You don’t need to buy place cards. Take rectangles of card stock and have your kids write the person’s name and draw decorations on each place card. The more people you have eating, the more perseverance this task will require.
- Peeling potatoes. You can give your child a safety peeler to keep the task safe. Mashed potatoes require a lot of potatoes to be peeled, making this a great task of perseverance.
- Setting the table. Many people, means there are a lot of place settings to put on the table properly. The key is “properly” which may require more perseverance for some kids than others.
- Washing dirty dishes. There is no meal that creates more dirty dishes than Thanksgiving. Even if you use a dishwasher, that is a lot of loading and unloading of dishes!
- Baking homemade rolls. Bread baking is always a great task in perseverance. Any recipe that requires kneading and rising is a great choice.
- Making pies. Pies are a great way for older kids and teens to learn perseverance. Most recipes have multiple steps and baking involved. Not to mention, you can’t eat the finished pie until after the meal is eaten!
Allowing your kids to help you prepare the Thanksgiving meal can teach them perseverance and give you the extra kitchen help you need for years to come. That’s a win win for everyone!