I don’t know about you, but sometimes I need a reminder to count my blessings instead of being grumpy.  And if that’s true of us as adults, certainly it’s true for our little ones who are still learning!  This month we got to review The Blessings Jar, by Colleen Coble, a story whose young protagonist learns this same lesson.

Punky Grace started the day grumpy.  The friend she’d hoped to spend the day with was sick, so her plans were spoiled.  Gran had a great idea, though, for a project to cheer her up.  They pulled out a jar and filled it with reminders of all the blessings they found throughout the day: a ballet slipper to remind them of dancing, sand to remind them of the stars (which looked like God had sprinkled sand across the sky), etc.

By the end of the day, of course, Punky Grace was no longer grumpy.  In fact, she’d had a pretty great day!  In the process, she also turned her thoughts away from her own disappointment and toward a way to be generous to someone else.

This is a large (nearly the size of printer paper turned “landscape”) board book, so it’s excellent for reading with little ones.  Gran and Punky use a few silly/fun phrases on occasion, which makes it particularly fun for reading out loud.  And the specific examples of blessings they found along the way are instructive for young children who need concrete illustrations rather than abstract concepts.

We’ve read a good number of children’s books lately – many of which are quite good – but this is a definite favorite!

Do you need an activity to keep little hands occupied while you read?  Or want to encourage your children to fill up a (2-dimensional) Blessings Jar of their own?  Tommy Nelson has coloring pages (including a Blessings Jar page) you can download here.

For an even more tangible lesson, grab a jar and create your own Blessings Jar!

But before you head off to do that, enter below to win your own copy of The Blessings Jar.

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