VALENTINE'S DAY: PK-3

CLICK HERE FOR FREE DOWNLOADABLE VALENTINE'S UNIT

Ana’s Blog

Valentine’s Week was such a fun week in our house! Not only was it slightly easier than usual because there are so many great premade crafts you can find out there (and at Michael’s they were 60% off), but we were able to do so many hands on activities that Aria had a blast and was more motivated than usual to do her work. Aria loved picking which valentines and ladybugs went to each person in our lives, and she loved asking my husband’s coworkers (when we visited him at work) if they wanted cookies and bragging that she made them. If there was one thing that I’m really glad I thought to focus on this week, it was the concept of loving your neighbor and sharing, because it is something so important for 3 year olds to learn and such an important tenant of faith.

This unit marked a significant positive change in Aria in that she has become extremely interested in helping in the kitchen. As I love to cook, this was really special for me and I loved to see how excited she was and how much she actually wanted to do herself. In the past, I had to do most of the work because she would lose interest, but this time she would get upset if I didn’t “share” the baking enough!

I think that making gifts and valentines for friends and family is a must this holiday, as really, sharing our love through gifts is what the holiday is mostly about. If there was one additional activity I would recommend doing for Valentine’s Day, it would be making a sensory activity. For our family, the rice box was a key activity we pulled out over and over, and the “Count the Rice Bin” activity I made up the morning I filled the rice box was one of the best math activities we have done. It is so easy to make our kids count items in our house, but it is hard to remember sometimes! See what you can come up with that your kids might respond to, as even Skylar loved the rice box and was able to have Valentine’s Day fun too!
​
I’ve entered a new stage, the three-nager stage I call it, with Aria. She gets upset or angry at the drop of the hat, and she is not afraid to say that she doesn’t like you if she doesn’t like what you have to say. Because of this, I’ve had a lot of frustration and have struggled with knowing how to deal with her when she is being unreasonable. I think that Valentine’s Day is a great time as parents to reflect on our need to love our children well, especially if we are home with them day in and day out. For me, the three year old stage is really hard, but I know that if I learn to love and discipline her well now, our teaching and parenting relationship will be better down the road. I don’t have all of the answers yet, but I am glad we spent the week working to love each other and the people around us in a really positive way. Some people may think Valentine’s Day is just a silly, Hallmark created holiday, but it has the potential to bring such joy to your home and those around your family! 

Jessica's Blog
​
We beat the winter blues away with everything hearts and flowers this week! I love LOVE and all things holidays so this week was a lot of fun. Taegan helped me make chocolate scented play doh to decorate and fill an empty heart shaped candy box. Of course someone had to eat all the real chocolates first (throw me in the briar patch 😜) but she enjoyed it and didn’t seem to mind not actually eating the treats.

Instead of presents and candy we started a new tradition of having a mommy daughter day date on valentine’s. This year I took her ice skating for the first time. It was a love hate relationship, she got a little scared of sliding on her own but  really enjoyed when I stood at her back and gently pushed her along. We also tried out a mommy and me arial yoga class, which we both immensely enjoyed. We spend so much time together but rarely doing something we both enjoy where we can be 100% focused on bonding. We talked a lot about how to share our thoughts, compliment one another, and generally share a healthy, happy, relationship. I know she’s only three but I feel like our Valentine excursion brought us closer and I can’t wait to see what future years hold!
​
I kinda skimped on the traditional education this week but hey that’s one of the privileges of homeschooling! We did get a few learning activities in such as matching up broken heart alphabet letters and hunting for number playing cards in our rice bin. I also printed several candy hearts worksheets for graphing, sorting, and patterns. The most fun learning activity was a heart box guessing game. I filled tiny boxes with different items (rice, bells, pennies etc) and put the first letter of the filling on the box. T could shake it, make the beginning sound, and look at a paper guide with pictures of all fillings to determine what was inside. She did the activity several times and improved her letter sounds with each round. We ❤️ Valentine week and hope you will too!