The Playing with Gratitude Project is an exciting new action research project. It originated when researchers discovered the powerful influence both play and gratitude have on the mental wellness of children. It works for adults, too.

Gratitude can help improve children’s health, sleep, immune system and ability to cope with life in general. For such a simple thing, it is incredibly powerful.

Once we understood the benefits of gratitude, we decided to join the project along with 24 other early learning centres around the country. Every day we looked for things to be grateful for and found ways to express gratefulness to others so they could enjoy the benefits, too.

Over 12 months, we intentionally taught our children about gratitude, what it is and how to express it. Through play, we helped them discover how important gratitude is and what it felt like to receive it. They discovered the happiness they could give others with this simple technique.

We monitored the children’s behaviours, looking for changes and signs of impact. The information and insights were documented for the researchers. Of course, we asked for parental approval first, and all information documented was kept anonymous. No names were ever mentioned.

We saw so much benefit in the project that we wanted the results for our children and ourselves.

We want to provide as many opportunities as we can to help the children thrive and develop as people, and this was too good to miss.

We were also keen to show the childcare community how well the project had worked for us so they could implement it in their centres.

You don’t have to be part of the research project to express your gratitude at home. If you want to experience the benefits, simply find something to be grateful for each day, and don’t forget to express your gratitude and love to your children and family.