Valentine's (Learning) Game

This has been used several times at our house this month: I used cardstock and a heart punch to make these. I got the general idea from Ramblings of a Crazy Woman and adapted for my kids.

Kyla has been adding with her fingers, so this was a fun, new way for her to try addition. She did great!

Homemade Valentines

Since the kids love to create and decorate...we HAD to make our own Valentine's this year. I loved this idea from Martha Stewart on folding a heart into an envelope. The kids thought it was really fun and they were so excited to deliver them!

Heart Crayon Shaving Sun Catchers

This is a messy project, but it is really easy and the kids love seeing the colors melt together and they look neat hanging in the window. I found this idea on Skip to My Lou.

What you need:

Iron

Crayon Shavings

Wax paper

Regular paper

Use some broken or scrap crayons and shave them in a pencil sharpener. Cut out hearts out of wax paper (you want to cut 2 at a time so you have matching hearts for the front and back) Let the kids drop different colors of crayon shavings on one of the sheets of wax paper.

Top with 2nd wax paper heart. Cover with paper (to protect your iron) and heat just until crayons are melted.

"Heart" Man

We've made these every year for Valentine's Day...

The kids like drawing the faces and they are easy to assemble.

Classic Snowflakes

There isn't much to say about making the classic snowflakes from paper, and every year we make some. This year was really fun...we hung them from the ceiling in the hallway and suddenly the kids were filled with laughter. They pretended to be in a snowstorm, catching snowflakes, built a pretend snowman, and Kyla put on her ballerina gear and "ice skated" up and down the hall. It totally made my day! I love their active imaginations!

Window Snowmen

We don't have real snow and Kyla has been dying to build a snowman...so I came up with this and they kids have loved seeing them everyday on the window. I used two circles made out of construction paper, then covered them with contact paper. I gave the kids cirlces, carrot noses, snowflake buttons, and lots of white tissue paper cut into squares. The contact paper was super sticky and the kids had fun putting the faces and buttons on, then dumping on the "snow". I cut away the excess contact paper and hung them in the window. They look really neat when to sun shines on them!

Candy Ornaments

A cute idea I found on bhg site:

We also made a snowman....

This was a little too advanced for Nathan, but Kyla did pretty good. She was able to make the shapes, I made sure the candies were all touching when I put them in the oven. I was not brave enough to let her push little candies in to them while they were warm, but I let her use a permanent marker to draw the snowman.

How to do it:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lay waxed paper on top of flat baking sheet. Unwrap candies and arrange on waxed paper in desired shape (tree, wreath, or candy cane), making sure candies are touching. Bake for 3 or 4 minutes, until candies are softened a bit, watching closely so they don't overbake and flatten (oven temperatures vary, so experiment to assess the right length of time for baking).
Remove from oven and immediately press desired candy decorations into softened peppermint candies. Immediately push wire ornament hanger into the top middle peppermint candy, or glue it to the back of hardened ornament. Cool and remove from waxed paper.