Valentine’s Day Fun for Kids

Valentine’s Day is this week and I am sure many of us adults have plans to go out that night to celebrate our love for one another. I hope you gathered some great ideas from my last blog. Most of us will be taking our children to a babysitter or will invite one over to take care of our kids. Valentine’s Day is not only a time to show our love for our spouses but should also be a time to show our love for our children. I’m not suggesting you take your children on your date, but to spend some time doing various activities with them during the week of Valentine’s.

Here are several fun ideas to make your children’s Valentine’s week special and show your love for them:

Make Valentine’s Cookies

Spend a night during the week before the 14^th and make a batch of sugar cookie dough and have your kids help you cut out shapes of hearts, lips, cupid, and other valentine’s shapes. I found various cookie cutters at the local grocery store for only a few dollars. Make pink, red, and white frosting to decorate the cookies and top with sprinkles, candy hearts, and other valentine candies. The kids will have a lot of fun and you can take some to their friends and some to their class at school.

Valentine’s Treasure Hunt

I did this idea 2 years ago and the kids loved it. I placed Valentine notes throughout the house and had different gifts with each note until they found the main treasure where I had red and pink balloons and new Valentine pajamas. They loved going from one place to the next and finding candy, little toys, and various prizes throughout the house. The kids still remember that Valentine’s Day. They knew they were special and that Mom and Dad loved them.

Make Homemade Valentine’s Card

Spend a night before Valentine’s and have your kids make homemade cards for their Mom and/or Dad and even have them make cards for their grandparents or other close relatives. Kids love to make things for other people. My five year old,Gracie, is living proof of this. She loves to draw pictures and make different things for us and also for her grandmas and grandpas. Get some construction paper in red, pink, and white colors. Let the kids draw pictures on them, write Happy Valentine’s Day, and have them cut out hearts and place them on the card. Place glue stick on the card in different Valentines shapes and then shake sprinkles on this area and shake off the excess. Your kids will love making these different crafts and will also cherish the time they are spending with you.

Have a Valentine’s Party

Every year my mom invites all of the grandkids over to her house to decorate Valentine boxes, make cookies, and make cards. The kids look forward to this party each year and have fun playing with their cousins and making neat boxes to put their Valentines in. My mom always makes a big batch of cookies beforehand and has the kids help cut the shapes, bake the cookies, and then frost and decorate them. My mom loves this time with the grandkids and the kids like being together and with their grandma. You can invite your own children’s cousins over or friends and neighbors to have a similar party at your own house.

Valentine’s is a fun holiday for kids and adults. Take the time to make your children’s Valentine’s Day a little more special this year and let them know how much you love them and want to spend time with them doing fun things. Create fun memories that your children will remember their whole lives. Most important is to make sure they know you love them more than anything.

Here is a little music video that I found about children. Enjoy. Billy Dean--Let Them Be Little

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ17tutZtd8

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