Looking for cute ways to celebrate Valentine's Day with your children? Here are five creative and affordable ideas to make this month extra fun!
1. Make your own Valentine's Day play-dough
Keep your play-dough in a sealable bowl or zipped storage bag and it will last for months! Have fun and make it festive by coloring it pink or red to celebrate the month. With the use of cookie cutters (pssst... perhaps hearts for Valentine's Day!), you can make fun shapes out of your dough. Click here for an easy, non-toxic play-dough recipe!
2. Create natural heart-shaped bird feeders
Birds need love, too! Check out this easy recipe and activity guide for making natural bird feeders using gelatin in place of peanut butter (something that's particularly helpful for children with food allergies). Another tip: in place of cookie cutters, use a silicon mold! Not only will your children have fun making the bird feeders, they will also enjoy finding the perfect spots in your yard to hang them.
3. Visit a botanical garden or plant your own flowers
Instead of buying expensive flowers, enjoy beautiful plants at your local botanical garden or spend time together planting some of your own! While you're working in the garden, talk about the different parts of the plant (the roots, the leaves, the petals); if you visit a botanical garden, talk about the different colors on the petals of the flowers you see.
4. Make cookies for a loved one
Chocolate chip, sugar, oatmeal raisin... the type of cookie doesn't matter nearly as much as the thought behind it. Look-up your favorite cookie recipe online and spend time together making cookies for someone (or a few someones!) who mean the most to you. When you're done, make some time to deliver the cookies to them with a note and a hug. It's guaranteed to bring many smiles! Here's a great chocolate chip cookie recipe we love.
5. Read special Valentine's Day themed books
From Pete the Cat to Llama Llama, there are plenty of Valentine's Day-themed children's books to choose from! Head down to your local library to pick out a few of your favorites, or purchase your own to add to a special Valentine's Day collection you can revisit together each year. Click here for some suggested Valentine's Day books for children (and stay tuned for an upcoming blog about our personal favorites!).
Do you have other ideas? Feel free to share them in the comments section of this post!