7 Valentine Activities You Can Do with Your Kids

Less than a week to go before Valentine's Day! Are you still thinking of activities that you can do with your kids?

Let me share 7 simple but meaningful activities that you can do even with small children. 

 

 

1. Valentine's Day Countdown - I got this inspiration from Catholic Icing but I modified it. We started our Valentine countdown last February 1. I chose 14 Bible verses about love (with the help of Google and my own Bible) that I want our family to focus on this month of love. Then, I printed the verses in pink bond paper and my eldest cut the paper into strips, folded them into two and taped them with masking tape to form a chain. Once the 14 strips were made into a long chain, I cut a pink ribbon and attached it to a heart-shaped pink board (that I cut as well). I taped it at the back of the door of our master's bedroom. What we do is get 1 heart from the countdown chain every night after evening Mass, read it and try to memorize it. Then, we stick it on the door. Our goal and challenge this month is to memorize all 14 Bible verses about love. Aside from reading the verse several times and memorizing the verse for the day, my husband and I also try to explain the meaning of the verses to our kids.

These are the verses on love that we have read so far.

John 3:16
1 John 4:7
Mark 12:31
Deuteronomy 6:5
1 John 4:16
John 13:34
Luke 6:35
1 Peter 4:8
1 John 3:13

You can still do this activity starting tonight or Thursday this week.

 

 

After this activity, we proceed to our next Valentine activity.
 

2. Q and A on how we expressed love and felt loved - Every night, we tell each other how we felt loved by the different members of our family. It's a good exercise to teach kids that there are different ways of showing love. Through this activity, our eldest son is slowly learning how to show love in many different ways. I remember one night when he said that one way he showed love to his younger brother was when he accompanied him to the bathroom to wash his hands even though he was annoyed that it takes his younger brother a while before he is done. I praised him for doing that and emphasized that love is doing something good to another even when you don't like it. Our 3-year-old is still a bit challenged by this exercise. His concept of love is still limited to hugs and kisses as of now even though we have explained to him the different love languages. hehe That or he is simply a physical touch person! ;)

 

 

3. Love Poster - The boys and I made a love poster inspired by the Bible verse "If you love me, you will obey my commands." They helped glue the pink hearts. My eldest wrote the verse on top of the poster.

I told them that every time they obey me, they can draw a flower inside "my heart" and they can draw a smiling face inside their "Daddy's heart" every time they obey him this month. I thought of this activity to further emphasize the virtue of obedience to my little boys.

4. Valentine Card-Making Activity - This is a yearly tradition in our home. I lead the boys in painting or crafting cards each year. This morning, we finished making cards for their grandparents, for my brother and for our pianist in the church who inspires my boys a lot! First, I cut hearts out of a white board then asked them to paint on them using watercolor. They chose the colors that they wanted to use on their works of heart. ;) After letting them dry, I put some glitter glue on the hearts and glued them to folded papers. Then, my eldest wrote messages on them and signed them. My 3-year-old wrote his name beside his older brother's name. So, that was our arts and crafts project for today with writing and spelling practice.

 

The Valentine card made by our boys for me and my husband today (February 11).
They each painted a heart. The blue one was painted by my 3-year-old
and the pink and purple one by my 6-year-old.

 

 

5. Valentine-themed Worksheets - Since we are a homeschooling family, I incorporated Valentine's Day lessons into our activities. My eldest has just finished answering some Math and English worksheets. My youngest started coloring a Valentine-themed Math worksheet also the other day. There are many that you can find in the internet. Just choose what is appropriate for your kids' current needs and interests. We got some of our worksheets from Education.com.

 

 

6. One-to-One Dates - We will be going out on one-to-one dates this week. There's an ice cream store near our house where I plan to bring each of my boys this week. It's just a few minutes away so perfect for when my newborn baby needs to breastfeed from me. Our maid can just go there and inform me that the baby needs me.

Took this photo during my Valentine date with my eldest son this afternoon (February 11).
We had ice cream at the park then had a light snack here in this place.

My handsome little Valentine today, February 12.

7. Book-Giving - Last but not the least, I will be giving my boys a book as a gift on Valentine's Day since we love books and it's International Book-Giving Day. I have a perfect book in mind already. I hope there is still a copy available in the bookstore of A Little Boy After God's Own Heart. This book was written by one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth George. I believe that this book is something they could reread over the years and grow up with. I pray that they would grow up to be boys with hearts burning for love of God.

What activities do you plan to do with your family this week or this month? Feel free to share them with me in the comments. Advance Happy Valentine's Day to you!