I was folding laundry the other day when this idea came to me, and I have to admit, I’m pretty excited about it. Sometimes I put notes in my kids’ lunches, you know those fun joke cards flying around pinterest, just a simple “i love you”, encouragement, and occasionally a “challenge”.  Like: find someone who looks sad and cheer them up. Just something to get them thinking not about themselves! As I was thinking about how to teach my kids service and gratitude, especially at this time of year when they are prone to be thinking only about what may or may not end up under that big tree, I thought about a daily lunch box challenge!

These are the bento lunch Tupperware shown above that we use, and LOVE, by the way.

We have 12 school days in November before our Thanksgiving break, so I came up with 12 challenge cards, one for each school day. One caveat though is that they do need to be able to read, so it won’t work too well for kindergartners. 1st grade and up will be perfect!

They are very low maintenance, all you have to do is print, cut and throw them in their lunch each morning! (or in their backpack if they get school lunch).  The only exception is one day I did say to share a “treat” with someone to cheer them up, so you will need to make sure to give them two (fruit snacks or the like) that day so they can have one, and they can share one.

I keep having visions of grandeur of starting a “kindness revolution”. Imagine if we all challenged our kids to do this this month! Make the world a little kinder place. And guess what? You don’t have to leave the service and gratitude to your kids 😉 You can join the challenge and adapt them for you each day! Then the two, or three, or whole family can sit around the dinner table talking about your experiences 🙂  I don’t know about you, but I feel like we have to be very intentional about teaching our children not to grow into entitled brats. I’m telling you, its hard to avoid these days! But I also think its important we not be too hard on ourselves, we do what we can, they come how they come. And we love them despite and because of it all.

By the way I did include blank cards as well so you can add or alter or customize your challenge for your kids!

And lastly, I thought they turned out pretty cute so I made them into generic thanksgiving cards as well. Your kids could write little thank you notes for the teachers and workers at their school and hand them out on the last day 🙂 It doesn’t take much to let someone know you appreciate them.

You can download these card with the button below. And be sure to follow along on Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram.  I am hoping to do a similar challenge for Christmas!

Use the #partylikeacherry to let us know how your challenge is going with your kiddos! I would LOVE to hear about it! Or let us know in the comments below 🙂