Home | Be Informed | Simple Valentine’s Day Activities at Home

It is easy to forget among all the red plastic wrapped candy boxes and piles of branded valentines that Valentines Day began not through a corporate meeting at Hallmark, but that it originated with real people. According to History.com, it was celebrated first as a saints’ day, with legends ranging from a priest imprisoned for marrying young lovers in secret to the first valentine being sent to the jailor’s daughter after visiting Valentine in prison, signed “from your valentine”. The day of love has also been associated with Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem Parlement of Foules in the 1300′s,  written to commemorate the anniversary of  the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia.

He wrote (along with 700+ other lines of poetry):

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

["For this was Saint Valentine's Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate."]

But even though the origins of Valentines Day are a bit murky, it still doesn’t take away the fact that it is easy to get distracted by the marshmallow hearts and mylar balloons and forget to take the time to actually celebrating the people we love…not just the goodies.

So I thought up a few really simple ways to remind my kids (and myself) to not forget about each other…

Hide-A-Heart: My kids love hide and seek, so I thought this would be a great little activity. I cut a piece of scrapbook paper into a heart and wrote “i love you” on it with a silver Sharpie. Then, I told the kids that whoever finds the heart needs to hide it for someone else to find…passing the love around. I started by hiding it in my daughter’s shoe. She hid it in her brother’s room…and so on. The most current hiding spot?

Next to Dad’s razor.

The kids are loving it, even my two-year-old. They get SO excited when they find it…and even more excited when they hide it!

What’s in a Name?: I am always trying to come up with ways to get my kids to think about what makes them special…who they are, not what they do. So I traced and cut out block letters for each of their names, and they are ready to use for an activity on Monday. We are going to sit down and think of words that start with each letter of their names that describe them. The goal will be to think of words for their siblings, giving each other words of affirmation in the process. We will write the words on each letter, and then they will end up with a fun valentine picture.

Easy…simple…but meaningful.

A Little Slip of Lovin’: Maggie shared that her mom used to write verses about love on little slips of paper for them to pull out of a box and read during the days leading up to Valentines Day, so I decided to run with it. I cut long slips of scrapbook paper, and wrote a variety of things on them. Verses about love, tasks like “Eat a Valentines treat (and get one for everyone else)”, games like “Love…love…love…YOU!” (a variation on Duck, Duck, Goose), and of course, “Give everyone a hug and a kiss”. It’s a quasi-countdown to Valentines Day and something for the kids to look forward to that will hopefully remind them about God’s love and sharing it with others.

Happy Valentines Day…to you and your family!

Home | Be Informed | Simple Valentine’s Day Activities at Home