Valentine’s Day is one of the most romantic days of the year. Often thought of as a day just for couples, nowadays it can include kids too. We look at ways in which you can celebrate Valentine’s Day with your kids and make the day special for them involving crafts, sweet treats, cute words and a lot of fun. Take a look at our ideas below.
What is Valentine’s Day?
Valentine’s Day is celebrated every year on February 14th. It is thought that it is named to commemorate the actions of a Saint Valentine way back in the third century. He was a Christian priest, who led marriage ceremonies and wanted to spread the word of Jesus but was stopped and killed for his preaching.
Nowadays, Valentine’s Day is seen as a day to celebrate those we love. It has become an extremely commercialised day but at its heart, it’s a day to celebrate our loved ones whether we buy them a gift or not.
Until recently, Valentine’s was seen as just for adults, married partners, boyfriends and girlfriends but now that we all love a theme for toddler activities, it’s becoming a day for families to celebrate with each other, including the kids.
I also have another post with other ideas of Valentine’s activities here.
Ideas for Making Valentine’s Special for your Toddler
- Reserve some “love” or “heart” themed books from the library or order them to your door and snuggle up to read these lovely stories with cute pictures.
- Make some Valentine’s crafts together. We love making cards in our house. Have you seen our “Thank you” cards? Drawing a simple heart on a card and letting your little one loose with some pens is a nice, simple craft for them.
- Play in a sensory bin. Colour some uncooked rice with paint or food colouring overnight. Then, once dry, fill a sensory bin or dish with the rice plus some scoops, spoons and some red and heart-shaped items. Let your toddler discover what’s in the tray by playing with the rice.
- Bake some Valentine’s Day treats. Heart-shaped biscuits/cookies with some pink, red and white icing on make great Valentine’s treats that you can share with your friends and family. Heart-shaped pink pancakes are another fab idea using a metal heart cookie cutter, pour your batter in and let it take the heart shape before flipping it over.
- Dress up for Valentine’s. You could dress in red or find clothes which have hearts on to make this day special. You can also get some cute heart-shaped designs to cut out and iron onto a t-shirt or jumper if you’ve got a Cricut or Brother ScanNCut.
- Make and hang up Valentine’s decorations. We got some thick watercolour paper, some watercolour paints, a small pot of water, a thin paintbrush and some heart cookie cutters. I drew round the cookie cutters with a pencil. My 3-year-old, then, used the watercolour paints to decorate the hearts. After they had dried, I cut them out and we stuck them on the wall and doors as decorations. She also gave one to our elderly friend. That was all her idea, which was so amazing and I was so proud of her.
How are you celebrating Valentine’s Day this year with your kids?
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