We typically profess our love with store-bought cards and
the boxes of candy, and those are sweet gestures, but what if
we choose instead to create purposeful traditions that make
our children feel truly loved and cherished? After all, we only
get roughly 18 Valentine’s Days with our children at home.
Let’s make each one count!
Prepare a special meal. Heart-shaped foods like pizza,
pancakes, and cookies are a simple and sweet way to show
your love. Make it a family affair by getting the kids to help
mix the batter or roll the dough while you chatter with them.
Alternatively, you could do a theme of red foods and prepare
pasta with red sauce with red velvet cupcakes followed by
fruit punch, for example. Add a hand-written love note and
it’s a meal they’ll remember.
Give tickets to an experience. Most kids are swimming in
“stuff” already. Instead of adding yet another stuffed bear to
the pile, consider giving the gift of experience. Ideas include
concert tickets, skating lessons, cooking or yoga classes,
horseback riding, movie passes, tickets to a zoo, aquarium,
or sporting event, etc. An abundance of research shows
that experiences bring much more happiness than material
possessions, so skip the bears and flowers and give the gift of
happiness!
Set up a Valentine’s Day themed play invitation. Children
value play time with their parents. Few things make a child
feel more loved than a parent who is engaged in play with them.
Some play ideas for Valentine’s Day include creating a themed
sensory bin for them to explore, doing a Valentine’s Day craft
together, sewing stuffed hearts together, and painting the
word “love” which you’ve pre-traced onto a canvas.
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