While Valentine’s Day may typically be aimed towards adults in Britain, with women receiving gigantic teddies and chocolates from their other halves, or couples booking romantic breaks away, we believe it is time we took a leaf out of the USA’s book and made February 14th a day of celebrating with our kids too!
This Saturday, why not explain a little about the history of Valentine's Day to your children to really get them engaged before turning up the fun with the following activities?
CARD MAKING
Let the kids get involved by tasking them with making some wonderful and undoubtedly unique Valentine’s Day cards. Be prepared and stock up on lots of red and pink card, glitter, paint and other crafty bits and bobs - the children will have a field day as they really get stuck in!
Kids love cutting and sticking and being creative in general, so this is a really fun way to start the day - plus, if you happen to be the recipient of the card they create then it is all the more rewarding. Make sure you stick it on your fridge to show everyone who comes over!
If they are old enough, why not task them with coming up with a lovely little poem to write inside it, using the ‘Roses are red’ line for inspiration if you like?
HAND PRINTS
As we said, children love to really get stuck in when it comes to arts and crafts, and we have found this to be especially true when they can partake in an activity which requires a substantial amount of soap and washing after!
It’s all good fun though, so why not invest in some paint (red or pink, of course) and let the kids make some hand print Valentine’s sheets? They simply need to dip their palms into the paint and press down on the paper or card with their hands slightly overlapping so that the image is in the shape of a heart when they pull away.
If it doesn’t seem to be quite so heart-shaped, let them paint a border around it to give it a bit more form, or let them write around it with a poem or some sweet words that they feel are relevant on Valentine’s Day.
LOVE NOTE JAR
We have heard of couples making eachother love note jars and think it is a really sweet idea for families to do together, and what better day is there to do so than Valentine’s?
Simply purchase a mason jar from either a homeware or crafts shop and get the children to decorate it. They could tie a ribbon around it, cover it in glitter, stick little pictures to it or whatever else they fancy!
Once the jar has been aptly decorated, take some little pieces of card and discuss with your kids why you love each other. Write them down on the cards and fold them up inside your jar. For example you could put “I love you because you smell nice” in one, or “You always make me smile” - just nice little things that you and your family can take out and read every so often as a reminder of how much you love one another.
HAVE FUN IN THE KITCHENIs there anything better than making something with the kids that also happens to taste delicious? Make some cupcakes with the children, or buy some from the supermarket and get decorating!
You can buy tubes of icing in all sorts of colours, so pick up a red and draw some pretty hearts on them, or buy some heart-shaped sweeties and red licorice and see what designs the kids come up with!
BOOKMARKS
Make your activities as educational as they are fun by creating some bookmarks with the kids. It’s really easy to do and practical when it comes to reading at bed time.
Simply take some pieces of card and using a ruler, draw along where you would like to cut it to form the bookmark. Once you have safely used a pair of scissors to do so, use a hole punch and just a cm or so into the card, make a hole to tie some ribbon through.
Then, let the children go wild and decorate their bookmarks however they wish to do so! They could paint pictures on them, write little sayings or poems, or even make individual ones for classmates.
