Start simple. Decorate the main rooms of your home. Give each kid a ball of ribbon in red, white, or pink and watch what they do. Ribbon can be wrapped around vases of flowers and draped above doorways. A pair of scissors can be run the length of the ribbon to create curls.
Cabinets and dressers can be made festive with small construction paper hearts. The kids can stick them all over – wherever they can find a good spot. If you sit still long enough, there may be a few attached to you. Bigger hearts can be cut out and displayed on the walls. If you are afraid that tape will strip the paint off of the walls, use a hole punch to create holes in the hearts. Make a loop through the hole with a piece of string and hang over a push pin or a small nail.
Instead of streamers, try a paper chain in alternating colors. Cut several pieces of construction paper into one inch wide strips. Interlock the paper and create a link chain. When the chain is long enough hang it up in the kitchen or family room as a banner to remind the entire family that it is Valentine’s Day.
Kids can glue Popsicle Sticks together to make coasters for the coffee table. Watercolor paints can be used to decorate the finished coaster with hearts and arrows. You can even add words like, Happy Valentine’s Day, Love, etc. to the coasters. The same Popsicle sticks can be used to make a poster or a mobile that says I Love You. The sticks are shaped and then painted bright red or pink. Once dry, mount them on poster board or attached to a heart-shaped hanger by pieces of yarn.
A cloth furniture cover can transform your living room into a Valentine’s Day celebration room. Measure the length of the couch or chair so that the cover will fit. Spread it out on the floor and let the kids get started on the decorations. They can glue felt words and shapes to the cover along with the names of each family member. Every year at Valentine’s Day you can bring out their handiwork and decorate the room.
Decorations are fun to make and display around the house. They don’t have to be for just one season. Store them in airtight containers so they stay clean and intact for next year and years to come.
Here are a few decorating ideas. Click on the pictures to order.
Love Crazy Valentine’s Day Decorating Kit 10pc
Kids like to get the sweet stuff more than the other stuff.
Valentine’s Day is a great day to allow your kids to share in being creative with baking… so here are some Valentine Cookie and Cupcake ideas that ooze with love and fresh baked goodness.
photo credit: therouxdown
Let’s start with the cookies.
For kids, baking is fun. It is a way for them to help out in the kitchen and learn love cooking. The freezer section of the grocery store has several flavors of cookies. Rolled dough is good to use and eliminates cleanup hassles after the cookies are made.
Take a roll of refrigerated dough and roll it out on a non-stick surface. Add a touch of flour to the rolling pin before you try to roll the dough or it will stick. Younger kids may find it easier to roll the dough out with a plastic rolling pin because they are not as heavy as the wooden ones.
Heart Shaped Cookie Cutters will turn regular sugar, peanut butter, and chocolate chip cookies into creations of love. Kids don’t only like hearts.
Let them experiment with other shapes in the cookie cutter arsenal if they want to. They can even design shapes of their own with the dough pieces that are too small to cut.
Cute Valentine Cupcake Ideas
Cupcakes are much the same way but it takes a bit more preparation.
To make it easy, use a box cake mix instead of mixing everything from scratch. Remind your kids that if you are adding egg that they can’t dip a finger in because of the possibility of salmonella poisoning.
The kids can choose to use cupcake cups that are decorated for the holiday or spoon them directly into the muffin pan. Mini muffin pans create bite size cupcakes for the family to enjoy after dinner. If you have a window in the oven, kids will camp out and watch the cupcakes bake just like a television show.
photo credit: dyanna
Decorate those cupcakes with creamy icing. White icing can be turned into pink with a bit of red food coloring. Kids will be amazed by this as the white icing changes colors. For an extra special touch, add candy sprinkles or cinnamon red hot candies. It will be hard to keep the kids from eating up all the ingredients as they bake. It may be hard to keep you from sneaking that spoonful of icing when you should be adding it to the cupcakes too so be warned.
Sweets are fun to make and even more fun to eat. Cookies and cupcakes get a nice makeover on Valentine’s Day to help reflect the good feelings of the holiday as well as create great family togetherness.
Here are a couple great resources for cooking with the kids.
The Berenstain Bears’ Valentine Party
Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse to have a party. Invite family and friends to share the day with you at your home. When a Cute Valentine party is on the agenda, everyone can contribute ideas to make it fun.
Plan ahead. To avoid a rush, gather all of the party supplies a week in advance. Let everyone brainstorm ideas until the big shopping day arrives. With list in hand, find games and items for everyone.
Dress each guest to celebrate at the party. For the girls, give them a candy necklace. Once the party is over, she can nibble at her necklace for a sweet treat. For the boys, try candy whistles. It’ll be the most delicious sound they’ve ever made.
I Spy Little Hearts W/foil
Start with some games. How about a game of hearts for the card players in the group? Go online and Google card games to find a simple version of the game for kids and adults to play at parties.
Word games are fun at a party. Using the words, Happy Valentine’s Day, give kids two or three minutes to write down as many words as they can using those letters. The one with the most words wins a prize.
Prizes for games can be as simple as paper hearts that function as coupons. For example, create a coupon that can be traded in for a day with no chores or a five dollar gift from the store. The more prizes a person wins, the more coupons they can cash in. If you have invited people outside the family, have a separate prize basket with small prizes like teddy bears and candy.
Teach a craft. Kids love to make things so give them an opportunity to learn something new. Since spring comes right on the heels of winter, show them how to plant seeds in a flower pot. They can start their own herb garden that will grow indoors. Decorate the pots with hearts so kids will always remember the fun they had on Valentine’s Day.
If the weather is nice, the kids can take turns whacking a Valentine’s Day piñata. The piñata can be a cupid, a heart, or something else related to Valentine’s Day. Each child gets three chances to bust it open. After that, the older party guests get a crack at it.
Even if it is just the family, a Valentine’s Day party can bring lots of laughs and quality together time. Encourage old and young alike to participate for the most fun.
