How can writing thank you notes benefit my child?

For the past ten years two professors, Robert Emmons and Michael McCollugh, have examined date of several hundred people who were involved in their  simple gratitude experiments. One ten-week study asked a group to write down five things in a journal they were grateful for that happened in the last week  for four days a week.

A second group listed ways they were better off than others as a way to appreciate their blessings. The psychologists then looked at the medical and  psychological tests of each participant prior to the study, and then again ten weeks later. Those simple gratitude exercises made those participants,  feel 24 percent happier.

But that’s not all: the students were also more optimistic about the future, felt better about their lives, slept better, felt healthier and less stressed,  were less materialistic and more likely to help others. And those results were not hard to achieve.

Best yet, you can help your child reap some of those results just by encouraging them to write thank yous.