Valentine's

[MamaBearCanada]

What, if anything, are you doing for Valentine's Day?


I took the kids out last week to pick out decorations & small gifts for parents & siblings last week. They also got to choose one thing for themselves (the 2 oldest both chose a microphone what was I thinking?!)

We decorated yesterday and today we are making heart sugar cookies. Tomorrow we wrap gifts/finish making cards and Thursday morning we have a party. I was thinking of a simple craft, special snack, we are wearing pink/red, and a couple of little games.

Anyway, I know a lot don't like the commercialism of Valentines, but I have tried to make this about what does love mean and doing kind things for others. I would really like some suggestions on ways to make Valentines meaningful. lovethis

[Meeko]

We decorate bags and the kids bring treats to share. We fill the bags with the shared goodies.

[NeedaVaca]

Just cupcakes here, will have them color some Valentine coloring pages too.

[SilverSabre25]

I have a Valentine's Sensory box that I'm pulling out later today. I have a bunch of fancy doiles, stickers, and papers that I"m going to set out for Tomorrow through Friday as an open ended craft project. And we'll probably do some sort of party on Thursday. DD doesn't have her class party at school until Friday because of early release Thursday so a party here will be perfect.

I think it's silly but DD loves it (always has, go figure, silly baby) so I try to make it really special.

[williams2008]

Were gonna have a party, the kids will be decorating treat bags and exchanging Valentine's. We been talking about the meaning of love, coloring and decorating the heart shapes.

[MamaBearCanada]

I have a Valentine's Sensory box that I'm pulling out later today. I have a bunch of fancy doiles, stickers, and papers that I"m going to set out for Tomorrow through Friday as an open ended craft project. And we'll probably do some sort of party on Thursday. DD doesn't have her class party at school until Friday because of early release Thursday so a party here will be perfect.

I think it's silly but DD loves it (always has, go figure, silly baby) so I try to make it really special.

Silver, what do you have in your sensory box?

[hope]

We are making heart shaped pizzas. It is a mess and I warn parents than they will be coming home in back up clothes bc the flour gets everywhere. The memory created is definitely worth the mess! And bonus is that the kids forget about all the sugary treats associated with the day.

[daycarediva]

I have a sensory box (pink & red were this months colors, heart was the shape). Pink & Red pasta, red crinkle paper, pink pom poms, small pink & red foam hearts, the letters that spell LOVE on red cardstock. I know I'm missing things but I can't think of what all else is in there right now. LOL

We are doing a small party in the morning, having pink heart chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast (HUGE treat around here) making a few craft (hands made into a heart), headbands with our names on them, and bags to put our valentines in, then a Valentines exchange, cupcakes for AM snack(a Mom volunteered to bring something in). I have a few small decorations, and bought valentines plates, cups & napkins for those days meals.

We have also been talking about love, and how our actions show love. I avoid the commericalism and make it about showing love, kindness and treating people kindly. lovethis

[Jewels]

I took pictures of the kids last week, 3 different pictures in one they are holding a big heart covering their face that says "I" in the next one they are peeking over the heart that says "LOVE", in the last their whole face is showing that says "YOU" we are going to make these into a tri fold card, we will decorate little mail boxes and bags, I have valentines ring toss and memory game, we are going to make pink and chocolate coveres pretzels for our mommies and daddy's, pass out valentines, and for snack I am making strawberry and banana skewers with hardened chocolate drizzled over them.

[Lyss]

We are doing a small party in the morning, having pink heart chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast

We're doing this too!! I let the kids make the batter and I get the griddle out and let them (well the bigger ones) pour the batter into metal heart shaped cookie cutters. They love cooking.

I have a DCM that's hounding me about a party for some reason, she's been telling DCB about how much fun it will be... So we're going to have cupcakes for PM snack, right before pick up!! I don't want a house full of sugar high children! !

We did crafts this morning, as they take a bit to dry. I give the kids heart cookie cutters, clear glue, and beads/stones and let them go to town. We put the cookie cutter on wax paper and they fill it with a thin (or thick if I’m not watching carefully) layer of glue then decorate with the gems/stones/beads. They take at least a day and a half to dry (I keep them in laundry room as it's the warmest room in the house) then we hang them like heart shaped sun catchers! We'll probably do something on Valentine ’s Day but I have no idea what yet. ::

[bunnyslippers]

I am not doing much. I will make a craft for each of the parents, a heart made out of their foot prints. A special snack. That's it!

[Starburst]

Maybe make it more about friendship by make a friendship paper-doll chain. Have construction paper (or cardboard) with a boy/girl silloette that you can cut out for younger ones and older ones can cut it out themselves. Give them some crayons, glue, yarn, stickers, glitter, ripped thin fabric and anything light enough to be hung on the paper. You can link them together by punching a hole in the hands and tying ribbons to link them together (or just staple them) and hang them up at the end of the day.

They can also make friendship bracelets from crocheing or bradeing yarn, stringing color beads (maybe with some those letter block beads), or you can boil popsickle sticks and then they can decorate it (its on pintrest)

You can have them make a little book about the things they love (family members, friends, pets, toys/cartoons)

Another thing you can do that is is have them make a mail box out of old cereal boxes.

[LK5kids]

We are making pink smoothies and valentine biscuits that you slice and then spread cream cheese and st.berry jam.

I got the recipe from howtorunahomedaycare.com

I've never tried the recipe for the biscuits. I hope they turn out. The smoothie is just yogurt, banana, strawberries, raspberries and milk. I made an extra trip and got all organic fruit. I am able to get organic milk and yogurt easily but not the fruit.

We are playing a valentine bean bag game and that's about it. They will help me make the snack.

Oh, also I made each of the parents a little valentine with chocolate. I'm into card making/scrapbooking and I would have fun making a cute little treat for my co-workers at the job I just quit to start my child care home. I figured I don't have co-workers any longer, so I thought it would be fun to give the parents a little treat on holidays.

I also made the kids a simple little card and a small gift bag with two mini chocolates, Annie's fruit bunny treats, notepad, etc.

[Msdunny]

I had the children make "cards" for their parents, my older kids have used scissors to cut out lots of hearts that I will put up tomorrow night to decorate, and we will have a VERY low-key party in the afternoon just before going home. I am serving a mini cupcake, strawberries, and pink juice. I also have gift bags for them to take home from me. Tomorrow we will work one making cards for each other to place in our mailboxes.

[CedarCreek]

We made our Valentine bags and wore Valentine masks and made a craft for their parents with their hands traced on construction paper. We then cut them out and bent the two fingers to where it looked like it was the sign for "I love you" then we glued those onto big red hearts. They exchanged Valentines and we had heart shaped pb&js, cookies and strawberry yogurt. They had fun

Eta: we had our party today two of them are going out of town tomorrow