Activities for Celebrating Valentine’s Day

Are you kids bummed about missing yet another in person celebration with their friends? Want to make a fun day for your kids? With Valentine’s Days around the corner, and remote learning and social distancing still in effect, we are looking for some fun ways to celebrate with our family and friends. Our kiddos have many neighborhood friends and friends from school that they dearly miss. What a better way than to take a few moments to send them a message of friendship this virtual Valentine’s Day.

Nothing gets us in the mood more than starting our day with dressing for the holiday. My little ones love to wear pinks, reds, purples, and white on Valentine’s Day. Even if your child is still logging in virtually to school, they can share in the spirit of the day with a special virtual Valentine’s Day shirt or hair style.

Our Virtual Valentine’s Day Plans

I know for many Valentine’s Day seems like such a silly day, but our kids really need some excitement. They’ve been trapped at home for far too long without the break of going to school. Plus it’s wintertime for us so that has meant limited time outdoors because the weather just isn’t cooperating. So we made plans to have a special celebration with our kids to help them through these last few weeks of winter.

We actually start our Valentine’s Day plans about a week before February 14th. Our kids need time to make personal Valentine’s Day cards for their friends and family, so we need to start early.

Making Valentine’s Cards

Everyone loves to receive mail, so our littles will be making cards for a few friends and then we will mail them out. Who doesn’t love to receive mail!?! If you want to save the stamp, take an afternoon and drop a few off at people’s homes either on a nice walk or drive. My kids love to drop things off for their friends too. And of course, you could always make e-cards to send through email, especially if your friends or family live a little farther away.

For cards, my kiddos are making a bunch of hearts. Then they are gluing on some silly sayings that we had leftover from a few years ago. With each heart, we will add a little personal message and something fun. We happen to have some scratch paper leftover and special stylists, so these will go into each heart to send off to a friend.

Our Valentine’s card list includes our cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, as well as a few of our second cousins. We added in our neighborhood friends since these are the kids we see the most. Then each child got to pick a few friends who lived outside of our neighborhood to send a Valentine’s card too. They had to ask their friends for their address though. Not only do they get to do something special for their friends, but they also get to practice addressing an envelope too!

Encourage Writing for a Virtual Valentine’s Day with Kids

We will make a large red heart on our refrigerator to keep a list of all the things we love. This will not only make a great back drop for remote learning, but give them something to add to during the week. Additionally, writing all the things we love will help us remember our favorite things both from during this year and before. And just maybe, we’ll get a little lift in spirit to carry us through these next few cold weeks.

To make the heart, you’ll need some red paper. We used red card stock we have left over and laid out 6 pieces of paper. We made 2 columns of 3 papers and taped the papers together. Draw the half heart shape on 1 of the columns. Then place it over the other column and cut out your heart. Now you can either tape the two halves together or put each half on your side by side refrigerators.

Then add your title to the heart. We like to write something like ‘Things We Love’ or ‘Cosas que amamos’ in Spanish. Then allow your children to write all the different things that they love. As an added bonus, we can work on both our English and Spanish writing! Encourage your children to write in Spanish and if they need, use a dictionary to translate. This is always a plus in our home.

Valentine’s Day Breakfast

We will start our virtual Valentine’s Day with a little special breakfast. Nothing too fancy, but some berry muffins are always a favorite. I’ll add in some red food coloring and top with a little bit of red sprinkles. Depending on the berries you pick, you may not even need the red food coloring, since the berries will naturally turn the muffins purple or red. For an added protein boost, mix in a little ground flaxseed or chai seeds.

To add a little more fun to your morning, throw together a quick smoothie. We enjoy making Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothies with just a few simple ingredients. You’ll need some old-fashioned oats, strawberries, yogurt, honey, milk, and a banana. We usually mix in some hemp hearts or chai seeds for that extra protein we need for some energy.

This will give them a special start to this missed holiday. When they get dressed, we will encourage them to find red, pink, purple, white or other Valentine’s themed colors that they already have. So simple and something we do every year.

Special Delivery for Kids on a Virtual Valentine’s Day

Throughout the day, I plan to deliver some little Valentine’s cards to my children. I have some simple paper machine designs that I can add messages too before folding. But you could easily cut out some hearts from construction paper or order some 5.5 inch paper hearts. Another option is to use notecards or sticky notes, and if you happen to have red, pink, or purple ones even better. If not, try for white ones but use a red, pink, or purple marker to write your note. No need to be super fancy.

They will get these delivered randomly throughout the afternoon, when they would usually have their classroom celebrations. Plus I can write these notes in both English and Spanish to work on our reading in both languages. My messages will be simple notes stating what I love about each child as well as a few Valentine theme jokes to spice up their messages.

For some note starters, try some of the simple messages below.

1. You light up my life when you ______.
2. My heart expands when I watch you ____.
3. Your ____ shines brightly.
4. I love you as much as the _____.
5. You color my world with your ____.
6. You are so special to me.
7. Your smile makes my heart happy.
8. My heart still skips a beat when ____.
9. I smile because you _____.
10. We have so much fun when we ____.

Valentine’s Day Treats for Kids

Then once school is officially over for the day, we will make some Valentine’s Day treats. We find that making treats is an amazing afterschool activity as it will distract your children from being hungry and making lots of mess around the house. If you want to make something that needs to freeze or bake, you could always prepare these the night before or in the morning.

My kids love Rice Krispy treats and these are easy to add a Valentine’s spin. We throw in some red food coloring to turn them pink and some m&ms. Be sure to add the red food coloring before you pour in the Rice Krispy cereal. You can add in the m&ms after the cereal, but they may melt a little. We like to mix in the cereal and let everything cool before adding in the m&ms.

And of course, we will make a little punch with a lemon lime soda, a strawberry lemonade juice, and some sherbet, mine love raspberry sherbet. These are so easy that my kids can actually make them all by themselves. Just mix the two drinks and scoop in some sherbet. Sometimes we even put the sherbet right into cups and pour the drink mix over the top. This ensures everyone gets a similar amount of sherbet. These of course will be saved for dinner, after dinner fun.

Virtual Valentine’s Day Games

If your kids are anything like ours, you may find you want a few games to break up the treat making for afterschool. We like to keep these more low key for Valentine’s Day but do need to get our kids moving since they tend to have quite a bit of sugary treats today.

Valentine’s Day Photo Scavenger Hunt

Start with a Valentine’s Day Scavenger Hunt. We love to send our kids on outdoor scavenger hunts so that they can move around and get out some energy. For Valentine’s Day you might have your children try to find some Valentine’s Day silly fun outdoor items. We give them some silly Valentine’s Day sayings and see what they find for each saying. Send them with a camera so they can take pictures saves on all of the nature they will bring you.

Some of our Favorite Valentine’s Day Clues

1. I’ve fallen for you – a heart shaped leaf, nuts, anything that falls from trees or the sky
2. I’m hooked on You – fish, turtle, or other item you could catch when fishing
3. You light up my life – a light
4. I ‘wheelie’ like you – something with wheels, car, skateboard, bicycle, roller skates
5. I like you ‘berry’ much – a berry plant or tree, something with a bear
6. You are out of this world – the sun, stars, moon, or sky
7. I am buggy for you – any bug or insect
8. You rock! – a rock
9. I’d always pick you – something you can pick, a flower, bud, fruit or vegetable
10. You are “O” so special – anything in the shape of a circle
11. You are toad-ally awesome – toad or frog or even a garden decoration shaped like a toad or frog
12. I’m wild about you – any wild animal
13. You make my heart soar – something that flies, bird, airplane, helicopter
14. I will love you Furr-ever – something with fur, cat, dog, squirrel, bunny
15. I’ve got a trunk full of love for you – a tree
16. You make my heart flutter – something with wings – butterfly, bee, bird
17. Some bunny loves you – rabbit
18. You color my world – anything with lots of color
19. I’m nuts about you – a squirrel or nut
20. You hold the key to my heart – a key or anything that needs a key

Valentine’s Day Races

As you are baking, when your children need a break, fill in with a fun Valentine’s Day Race. Get your kids up and moving to use up all the extra Valentine’s Day energy. Use give your kids a Valentine’s Day animal pun and let them race from one side of your yard to the other as the animal from the Valentine’s Day pun.

Some of Our Favorite Valentine’s Day Animal Puns

1. You’re Purr-fect = cat
2. You’re Doggone cute = dog
3. I’m bananas for you = monkey
4. No bunny compares to you = bunny
5. You’re my tweet-heart = bird
6. I’m batty for you = bat
7. I ain’t lion when I say I love you = lion
8. I love you bear-y much = bear
9. You’re claw-some = crab
10. I like chilling with you = penguin
11. I love you a ton = elephant
12. You’re a great catch = fish
13. You’re turtle-y awesome = turtle
14. I’m nuts about you = squirrel
15. Owl always love you = owl
16. You drive me hog wild = pig
17. You make my heart jump = kangaroo
18. I’m chompin’ to be your Valentine = alligator
19. I’m quackers about you = duck
20. You’re toad-ally a sweet heart = toad

Movie Night for a Virtual Valentine’s Day Celebration

And to end the night after dinner and treats, we will either read a few Valentine’s themed stories or watch a family movie together. This will depend on what other activities the kids have in the evening that day as well as how exhausted we are as parents. No time for a movie if we have basketball practice, martial arts, or dance classes.

Mine love to snuggle up and cuddle for a nice family movie just as much as they love snuggling while sharing some stories. They really just love to be with us and share something special together. Set up some blankets and pillows to make yourself a comfortable area. Then pop in your favorite movie and enjoy the snuggles.

Want a little treat for the movie? Make some virtual Valentine’s Day popcorn too. You can make just popcorn, or you can spice it up a little. We love to coat our popcorn with a variety of different items depending on our mood. You can coat popcorn with melted marshmallows, just like with Rice Krispy Treats, use colored candy melts for special colors, melted peanut butter, or use melted white or milk chocolate. Then mix in your favorites like valentine’s sprinkles, m&ms, marshmallows, pretzels, etc.

We’d Love to Connect with You

Now that you’ve got a wonderful virtual Valentine’s Day celebration planned for your children, what will you plan next? Want to add some love to your St. Patrick’s Day celebration with kids? Read our post on St. Patrick’s Day at Home. Don’t forget that Spring Conferences are coming up and we can help you prepare. With spring break right around the corner, you may wish to check out some of our Learning Activities for Spring Break with Spanish practice in mind.

What did you plan for your Valentine’s Day activities? Please drop us a comment below and let us know which ideas you found most helpful. Have other Valentine’s Day celebration fun for families, we’d love for you to drop them in the comments too. Looking for more fun ideas for celebrating holidays with kids and supporting their learning at home? Subscribe to our newsletter for families for more practical solutions to real-life parenting problems and a few freebies too!

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.