Valentine's Day

[Spixie33]

Hi, just wondering when you begin Valentine's craft?

Have you started some now? Will you do it from feb 1- Feb 14 or just the day of Valentine's?

Usually I would make about 2 crafts with the daycare for Valentine's the week of....but now with Pinterest I have so many ideas that we could make that I wondering if I should start sooner.

What are you making? When do you plan to start?

[Momof4]

I had to get my calendar to check my themes before I could answer your question. I love themes and from Feb. 4-13 we will be talking about Love and Valentines, so yes, lots of crafts. On Valentine's Day every year I have All Red Day and we all dress up in as much red as possible, we eat all red food and we make some type of container so that the children can all bring little cards from home that they make with their parents and put in all their friend's containers.

I do a similar thing all in green on St. Patrick's Day. Of course, we also make a treat like cookies or cupcakes on our special days and we have games like a scavenger hunt and songs to make it a good party.

By the way, on Fri. Feb. 1st we'll be making groundhog day crafts.

[playfelt]

I will do Feb 4-8 and 11-15 as Valentines, friendship, sharing and caring, being a good friend type of theme. Lowkey due to ages but mostly from reading stories on getting along. A good time to go over the rules in daycare as it also tends to be the month we are stuck inside and getting tired of winter.

When I don't want to do all of the crafts with the kids I do them myself to make a sample and then every day we hang up a few more things I have made to decorate for the holiday much like we would do at Christmas. The week after so Feb 18-22 we gradually undecorate. I like having a lull in stuff plastered everywhere so we get a visual break and then what we put up seems more special.

[mimi]

I agree playfelt. I love to decorate but I think a lull in the extra decor is important so when we celebrate special occassions, the decorations are appreciated.

[Momof4]

I am another one who goes a little crazy with decorations for each holiday. The months where we don't have a holiday my house seems so bare but also very neat.

[daycaremom9]

I'm going away the week before Valentine's day so I'm thinking something low-key the first week of February. Just wondering if you ladies give out Valentine's gifts for the kids?

[Spixie33]

Gifts for the kids? Yikes. No....not from me.
I am planning to give a few treats - like if we make these fish bowls....

http://everything-in-focus.blogspot....es-treats.html

and http://pinterest.com/pin/122512052333326283/ maybe??

There is going to be extra cost for craft supplies and treats like cupcakes so I don't want to spend even more. I don't think Vday is a day for presents.

I have two dcks with birthdays in January too so I am already grimacing at having to buy the birthday presents so soon after Christmas. lol

[playfelt]

I do sugar cookies to decorate and make a large heart for them to decorate to take home and "share" and then some smaller heart shaped cookies we decorate and eat.

We talk about foods that are red and have some that week such as strawberries and raspberries that we don't get a lot of in winter due to being out of season as far as cost goes along with some cheaper things like red grapes, red pepper - mine don't like tomatoes.

[Momof4]

I give the children a Christmas present, a birthday present and a loot bag at Hallowe'en. At Easter I tell them that the Easter bunny brought a treat while they were napping because we always make some sort of little basket. It's just a little loot bag again.

Every holiday and special day we make treats but the children always just have one cupcake or one or two cookies, whatever we make. I used to make enough to send home to the parents in the first few years but I don't do that any more.

For red food I use a little red food dye in some cream cheese on crackers or a morning bagel, grape tomatoes, red peppers, salami, red grapes, strawberries, pasta in red sauce, beets, red apples.