November is a time for being thankful. When the weather starts to turn colder and holidays are approaching, it feels good to stop our busy and sometimes stressful lives and take a minute to think about all we have to be thankful for. The fall and winter are full of holidays and family gatherings, so we naturally think about being thankful for our families, both immediate and extended. We were curious about what kids our age were most thankful for, so we gathered more than 100 responses to the question, “What are you most thankful for?”. 

It was not a surprise that the most common response was family, however, we were surprised that having food, shelter and basic needs was next. Pets and activities like soccer, hockey, video games were tied. Friends made up 10% of the responses, followed very closely by school/teachers! We decided to see how adults’ responses would compare, so we polled 25 teachers and found a lot of similarities. Family was still the overwhelming most common answer. The teachers were thankful for their jobs, health and pets pretty evenly. As we read over the responses from the kids and adults, it was a good reminder that we do have a lot to be thankful for.