Newsletter Preview: November 1-7 // Seed Mosaics, Time Travel Elevator, Remembering We're Loved, and More!

This is a sample of the kind of newsletters we'll be sending out each week. Let us know what YOU want to see in a newsletter! (Menu planning is sent out separately due to the length of these emails 😬

Nov 01, 2021

Sure, it's cliche since it's November, but this month our theme is gratitude. Practicing thankfulness is going to change our lives more than we'd expect! Get ready for it.

Here's a preview of this week's newsletter:

Activity: Seed Mosaics
Parenting Pep Talk: Remembering That We’re Loved
Family Book Clubs
Challenge: Daily Gratitude
Kids' Printable: Time Travel Elevator

Activity: Seed Mosaics

You and your kids of all ages will be able to keep yourselves busy for a long, long time, creating designs and arranging patterns using dried beans and seeds! These can make pleasant gifts, too.

-All you need is glue, dried beans of various kinds and colors, and cardboard.
-Rice makes a great background filler.
-If you can’t find glue, make your own by combining 2 parts flour + 1 part cold water.
-If you don’t have dried beans, you can use blades of grass and other things found in nature! (We’ll focus on making stellar nature collages later on.)
-You can put the beans in a muffin tin to keep the colors separate as your family creates together, or just use bowls or random containers.
-This craft appeals to ALL skill levels and it’s fun to do again and again. Challenge the more focused family members to make some truly frame-worthy bean masterpieces! (Google "seed portrait" or "bean mosaic" for some surprisingly impressive inspiration.)

Some things to talk about while you create together:

"Let’s take our time and put care into how we place each and every bean. The end result will be worth it. Why do you think it’s important to be patient and put care into what we do?”

“Wow, I never could’ve made a mosaic that looks exactly like yours. Your brain, your hands, and your heart have created something that no one else could.”

“Beautiful art is made one stroke—or one bean—at a time. By itself, one bean doesn’t look great. If we only used one kind of bean, it probably wouldn’t look great, either. But with many pieces that have their own unique characteristics, all working together, it creates something really special! Our community/family/church is kind of like a mosaic, isn’t it?”

Parenting Pep Talk: Remembering We’re Loved

Most of the times that we make bad choices, we’ve forgotten how much we are loved.

It’s the same for every age, whether we’re fighting over a toy or yelling at an incompetent coworker. When we make decisions that hurt ourselves and others, all we see is how we’re not getting what we want. In that moment, we’ve forgotten all that we have. We forget our security and only see the scarcity.

Many cultures and religions have created entire holidays centered around remembering and gratitude, such as this weekend's Dia De Los Muertos and All Saints’ Day. People throughout history have noticed that it’s healthy and important to stop and remember those who have gone before us, and many cultures have built remembrance into their schedules. We have tried this here in America too, but our holiday of Thanksgiving is often full of anything but that.

Some people, of course, do not have a family heritage of love. It’s maybe never been clear that they are loved. Maybe this is true for you. If so, we grieve about that with you. But this is also an invitation to do things differently in your own family. Your kids will know and feel that they are deeply loved.

This month we’re going to focus on gratitude. Science, stories, and personal experiences make it clear that gratitude is a major key to health and happiness. (And, reminder, a mindset of gratitude is free.)

Let’s take time this week to focus on remembering that we’re loved. Oh, and it couldn’t hurt to have a movie night and watch Pixar’s Coco, eh?

Family Discussion Questions:

What are some times when we’ve made choices that hurt others this week? What was really going on in our hearts? What were we forgetting?
Who are some people we know who make us feel safe and filled up? How can we help others feel this way?
This month we’re focusing on growing in gratitude. How do you think this will make a difference in your life over the next several weeks?

Family Book Clubs

Grownup Book Club: Robert A. Emmons has written some excellent books on gratitude, so this month we recommend either reading his book Thanks! or listening to the audiobook Gratitude Works!

Older Kid Book Club: A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park is an unbelievable true story about a Sudanese boy who survived bullets, lions, crocodiles, hunger, loneliness, and more than a thousand miles of walking through the desert. The perspective from this book will help you feel gratitude for the safety and security of the life we know…and, as it did for Salva Dut, that gratitude will likely compel you to action.

A non-fiction choice that corresponds with our adult book is The Little Book of Gratitude by—yep—Robert A. Emmons. His work is great.

Picture Books: Thank You Omu by Oge Mora is about a girl whose generosity inspires her community. Ella by Bill Peet is about a spoiled circus elephant who goes through humbling circumstances and learns to appreciate her life.

(Refer to the last newsletter of October for the full November booklist. And stay tuned next week for some discussion questions for our book clubs!)

Act of Thoughtfulness:

Who are some people you know who might not often hear that they’re loved?

Make a note on your phone or in your planner with a list of 5 people who could really use a simple reminder that they’re loved. Refer to this list often and reach out when you have a minute.

Individualistic cultures like our own run major risks of having lots of lonely people. Though we expect that older people in nursing homes are lonely (which they often are), recent findings show that young people might be the loneliest of all. According to Harvard, 61% of young adults and 51% of mothers with young children in the U.S. feel “serious loneliness.” About 1 in 5 milennials say they have no friends.

I know that’s a lot of people, but even just a text that your family is thinking of them—better yet, a picture message of some art your kids made—could be a really helpful reminder. You never know what kind of day someone is having and how much of a boost kind words can give them.

21-Day Challenge:

If you’re reading Gratitude Works! or The Little Book of Gratitude, they include their own gratitude challenges, and they’re really good. Or, if you want to keep it simple, here is your task:

At the end of each day, write down 1-3 sentences about what you are grateful for that day. Ideally, do this together as a family.

Try to do this for at least 21 days of the month. Here’s a tracker for this month.

Printable Toy: Time Travel Elevator

Here's a fun and educational printable toy for your kids. I recommend taping it to the wall of a small bedroom, bathroom, or hallway. Gather everyone in, tap a button, and pretend to explore the world in the time period of your choice!

This is a good opportunity to talk about being grateful for modern conveniences, health, and safety!

Well, that’s it for now! See you later this week with the meal inspiration!

As always, write back and let us know how things are going. We love to hear from you and truly care.

Warmly,
The Family Scripts Team