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One of the best things we did as family is start the special plate tradition. I first heard about it from Jennie Garth of 90210 fame, and we have been using this tradition for about eight years now.

Whenever a member of the family has a big win, a soccer goal, a steller report card or anything that’s a big deal, the person is given the special plate at the next family dinner. As a family, we talk about their accomplishment, we focus on the person and talk about how they achieved their goal, the great job they did. The special plate is only used for this purpose and stands out.

We all like being told, “ Well done, you did a good job!” in front of your tribe. It really empowers people and like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the more you get “seen” for your accomplishments, the better you feel about yourself, and more likely to focus on attempting more successes.

Celebrating someone’s win really helps people feel acknowledged, seen, heard and recognized for what they’ve accomplished and are becoming and being. When you think about it, often the only other time most people get that kind of focused attention is on their birthday, when it is time to blow out the candles on their birthday cake, and that is just for “existing”.

Kids feel proud of getting the special plate and acknowledging their accomplishment

The special plate has a lot of meaning for our kids because whenever we forget to give them the plate when they have achieved something, they bring it up. They will say, “I haven’t had the special plate and I got the report card two days ago!” They want to talk about their their accomplishment, so we know that it has a lot of meaning for them.

Any plate will work but it should stand out visually and be used just for celebrating. In our family we all have our own individual special plates. I’ve included some special plates that are available on Amazon including ones that are fun for teens, and fun for younger kids.

Another amazing thing about this family tradition is that it is super easy to implement any day of the week.

Here are a few fun special plates for kids

Here are a few of my favourite special plates for kids and teens. I like to give the tradition as a gift for birthday and Christmas to friends and family. When you think about it, kids have so many toys so giving something different like a wonderful tradition really stands out as a gift. All these products are available on Amazon.

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