Although VaLentine’s Day may often be thought of as a holiday for adults, what could be sweeter than Valentine’s Day with your kids? Many kids exchange valentines at school, but you can make your child’s Valentine’s Day at home super sweet, too. Here are 14 ideas to put you in the mood to celebrate:
Make Heart-Shaped Food
A heart-shaped pizza is a lot of fun! Whether you make the dough yourself or buy prepared dough, kids will love having their own personal-size heart-shaped pizza. Or make lunch heart-shaped. Sandwiches can be cut into hearts, or heart shapes can be made using a cookie cutter.
Send Valentines in Many Ways
By email—Sites such as Blue Mountain Cards, American Greetings or Punchbowl allow you to email fun cards for free.
Postcards—For a small charge, the Touchnote app lets you send postcards and add a picture. Touchnote does the printing and mailing for you, and your valentine receives a special postcard. Or go the old fashioned route at the post office. Some will have more of a
selection than others, but children love picking out their own stamps and mailing out valentines. Depending on your child’s age, you can address the envelopes for them or use this as a time to teach them the finer points of letter writing.
Decorate In Hearts
So many items can be found in heart shapes these days. Heart-shaped balloons or simple pink and red balloons for Valentine’s Day will make your child’s day!
Make a Valentine’s Day Scavenger Hunt
Put clues around the house and let your kids search high and low for a box of candy hearts or a similar treat.
Have a Valentine’s Day Photoshoot
Admittedly, this may be more for you than for the kids, but a heart is an easy shape to cut out of construction paper for props. Dress the kids in red and have a Valentine’s Day photoshoot!
Surprise Your Kids with Love Notes
Leave Post-It notes of love or encouragement for your kids on the fridge, their bathroom mirror or other places around the house. For extra fun, use pink ones for Valentine’s Day or put them together into the shape of a heart.
Put Up a Valentine’s Day Tree
Haven’t taken down your Christmas tree yet? Just switch the decor from ornaments to hearts!
Break a Heart-Shaped Piñata
Kids love the fun of breaking a piñata, and these can be easily incorporated into your celebration. Heart-shaped piñatas are available on Amazon if you can’t find one locally.
Play Tic-Tac-Toe
Nothing says Valentine’s Day quite like the X’s and O’s in this game that kids already love. To adapt the game, have the winner get the number of kisses and hugs on the board!
Get Baking
Of course, there’s the old standby: pink frosted cupcakes or sugar cookies are sure to be a big hit.
Make a Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board
While a simple cheese plate used to suffice, the popularity of the charcuterie board is still going strong, and creativity is encouraged.Technically, a charcuterie board means a board of prepared meats, but these days anything goes! Why not cut cheese or salami into heart shapes to make one of these beautiful food presentations?
Make Pink Smoothies or Milkshakes
Recipes for strawberry smoothies or milkshakes are plentiful online.
Read a Valentine’s Day -Themed Picture Book
There are many, many great picture books that complement Valentine’s Day. Try “Mama, Do You Love Me?” by Barbara M. Joose or “Henry In Love” by Peter McCarty.
Make Chocolate-Covered Strawberries
These are not actually very hard. Just melt chocolate chips in the microwave, dip the strawberries in the melted chocolate and then place them on wax paper. They’re beautiful and delectable!
Jill Morgenstern is a mother of four with over 20 years of teaching experience and a master’s degree in teaching reading.
