Ready to infuse even more heartwarming activities into Valentine's Day with your family? Go beyond the chocolate and card creation to make the days leading up to Valentine's Day filled with fun and creativity. There are so many possibilities for incorporating meaningful early learning skills and play into this sweet holiday. And the most important part, is that it doesn't need to be complicated with young ones, just select a few simple activities from our list and get their littles hearts pitter pattering!
Collect Heart-Shaped Items and Create an Exhibit
Children love collecting! Task them with gathering heart-shaped items like: toy pieces, cookie cutters, stickers, ribbon and paper cut-outs. Encourage them to go out into nature and look for heart-shaped rocks or leaves. If you have snow you can create heart-shaped walking tracks in the snow!
Write Love Notes In The Snow
If you live in a snowy climate, head outdoors for some snowy love. Find a stick and draw hearts, poems, and little love note in the snow. You can even make snow hearts and decorate them with dried leaves and tiny pebbles.
Show some Love to Your Dolls and Stuffed Animals
Everyone loves to be cozy, even dolls and stuffed animals! With this simple doll and me blanket craft, kids can not only create a warm blanket for themselves but they can create a matching one for the doll pals. This simple craft is a great way to keep little hands busy and make something they can feel proud of creating.
Go On a Date!
Incorporate toy food for a pretend restaurant "date." Every special occasion calls for a fancy dinner! Help your children set the table, make a centerpieces, make menus, and then dine on some exquisitely creative dishes!
Make a Kindness Fortune Teller
Kindness truly is contagious and with this simple fortune teller craft, kids can make kindness a part of every day. Follow our simple tutorial for a sweet activity that will make being kind even more fun!
Books About Love
Read books that teach love, empathy and compassion. Then reflect on those stories by brainstorming how you can implement what the book covered into your own life. This could be by doing good deeds, treating others with respect, showing unconditional love for yourself and others, etc. To take this farther, write a family story about moments of love your family has shared. Perhaps a love story about bringing home your pet and how much love they have brought to your family.
Learn About the Heart Organ
Borrow science books from the library that teach about how the human heart works. Hearts aren’t just shapes that symbolize love, hearts are one of the most important organs in the body and without a functioning heart, animals cannot stay alive. Teach your kids how to check their pulse and if you have a play stethoscope lying around, maybe even give everyone's heart a good check up!
Play a Board Game
Make up your own board game relating to love or a game that uses heart shaped pieces! Kids are experts at making up their own games. Arm them with heart-shaped “meeples” (the wooden figures used for gaming), pink, red and purple colored paper, markers, glue and see what happens! If you need some gaming inspiration, check out some of our bestselling HABA games.
Edible Valentines
Use food to make edible valentines. Strawberries, apples, homemade cookies, chocolate. For a simple project, use chocolate kisses to trace letters! Write their name in large letters on piece of paper and have them line up the chocolate kisses along each letter. Then let them eat a few!
We hope you have a heart-filled Valentine's Day and spend lots of time with your little sweeties enjoying time together.
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