Delicious Valentines Please

Happy Valentine’s Day friends! I’ve got some quick and delicious ideas for you to share the love with your little ones. Who doesn’t LOVE food, right?

One of my best friends asked me to make some Valentine tags for her little guy who started preschool this year. We had a funny conversation about how much pressure parents feel to be sure that their children’s Valentine treats are organic, free of artificial dyes, gluten free, dairy free, fun free, blah, blah, blah. Although she’s devastated she won’t be harvesting her fruit locally and canning it herself, she did decide to go with fruit pouches. If it’s on Target’s Cartwheel App, it has to be good!

I whipped up some tags for the preschool kids so it’s a pretty low prep Valentine idea. You can grab the tags for FREE here. If you’re a really rebellious parent, you could even attach them to fruit snacks or apple juice or something else with sugar in it.

Our local newspaper recently contacted me to see what we do to celebrate Valentine’s Day with our children. With 3 little ones under 5, we don’t get out much. I told the reporter that we usually make heart shaped pizza and a special red dessert at home. The teacher in me creates Valentine’s Day activities and crafts and we read oodles of books about hugs and kisses and love. I love these activities because I can still rock my top knot and yoga pants (see pictures from last year for proof).

 A few days later, a photographer from the newspaper came to take pictures of our family enjoying Valentine’s Day (in the middle of January). I had a little sorting activity for the kids. The goal was for them to use tongs or spoons to sort conversation hearts and then we could count and tally them. Lanie loved using her little spoon to sort each heart! Rusty must have thought the story was about how many conversation hearts a 4 year old could eat in 10 minutes so he really LOVED this activity! The next day I found him eating what I thought was cereal out of a bowl with a spoon. It was a bowl full of conversation hearts! #oops #hidethecandybetter

You can download the sorting and counting mats for FREE here.

I have one more food inspired Valentine’s Day idea for you. At my school, teachers make Valentine boxes or bags with their class. I tried little boxes and bags in the past, but by always ended up being a bit of a mess. They either overflowed or ripped, or kids couldn’t fit their valentines into the little openings.

A few years ago, I asked a local pizza restaurant to donate pizza boxes. They generously donated dozens of them. I drew a pizza sign that said “Special Delivery All of my Love.” The kids colored the signs and glued them on the lid of each box. They wrote their names on the outside and inside of the lids. When it was time to pass out valentines they just opened their boxes. It was so easy to pass out the valentines, close the lid, and send home those “special deliveries!”

You can get the signs HERE! They work on any pizza box that has a lid larger than 8.5×11 inches. You can glue in on a piece of construction paper or scrapbook paper if you have big boxes to cover.

I hope you have a delicious Valentine’s Day!