Visiting relatives, meal preparation, football games. Children can get lost and bored in the hustle. Try one or two of these ideas to make Thanksgiving memorable for your littlest pilgrims.

Give Thanks
Ask your children to write a thank-you letter to a person who has done something that they are grateful for. Maybe the school nurse bandaged his knee, or a relative taught her to ride a bike. Any small act of kindness warrants a thank-you.

Make giving thanks fun. Ask everyone to write down what they are most thankful for in the past year on index cards. Read cards during the meal and guess who wrote which.

Relative Importance
You know the family lore by heart, but do your children? Make a list of questions for them to ask loved ones that will lead to fun family stories. This is a great icebreaker for kids and adult relatives who don’t see each other often.

Tell stories about the founding of America and share the story of how your family came to America.

Crafty Cards
If your children like to draw or paint or cut and paste, give them art supplies and ask them to make a Thanksgiving card for each guest. Older kids could include a personal note to each about what is new since they saw them last. If the guest list is too lengthy, they could decorate place cards instead.

Share Your Patriotism
Ask your children why they are thankful to be Americans, and talk to them about why you are thankful.

Sing classic songs such as “America the Beautiful” and “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” Talk about how your family is affected by the Bill of Rights, Constitution, recent laws or political elections. Ask family members to share their thoughts on America’s freedoms and what it means to be an American today.

Put on a Show
If your children possess dramatic flair, have them put on a Thanksgiving Day show. Undoubtedly they have learned Thanksgiving songs or poems or have written about Thanksgiving at school. Ask them to perform for the family.

Older children could act out a Thanksgiving book borrowed from the library or perform their version of the first Thanksgiving.

Giving Back
People often think about feeding the homeless during Thanksgiving, but people are hungry all year long. Use the holiday as a time to discuss ways your children can show their thankfulness by giving back to the community on a regular basis.

You could plan to contribute to the Second Harvest Food Bank every month. Or you could donate unneeded items to a charity, like Children’s Treehouse, Our House or Valley Rescue Mission, three or four times a year.

To prepare for company on Thanksgiving last year, my children made Thanksgiving themed napkin rings (some with Indian corn glued to them, some just printed off the internet and colored). They rolled the napkins and put the rings on and also helped set the many tables we had set up to accommodate the 23 people we had for dinner. We counted out the utensils, cups and plates for each table and that was a math lesson in itself. I also decorated the tables with the many Thanksgiving crafts that they made at school. They were proud to show them off! Lynn Summers Midland

Since I help my mother in preparing the big meal every year, I let [my daughter] Sarah help me cook by mashing the yams with a potato masher that belonged to my late grandmother. Sarah loves to help in the kitchen and even has her own apron. When I see Sarah using that masher, it brings back wonderful memories of my grandmother, as she loved cooking especially for the holidays. It is as if she were here in spirit. Marlisa Clark Phenix City