Gah. I hate this new custom that the lovely storebought valentines must be adorned with a small gift, preferably candy. Especially now that my kid has been diagnosed with a peanut allergy and can't have most of the candy that she'll receive.

Also: do you remember how long your kid spent lovingly examining each and every valentine he got last year? Probably not much. Neither did his classmates. Why kill yourself to make homemade cards, unless it's what you really enjoy doing?

 

Actually that's the exact reason that I'll never do candy. This year it's just the plain old valentine. You're absolutely right though about the homemade valentines! Thanks for your comment.

 

I'll be writing about kiddie valentines this week too! We got very specific instructions to write "to my friends, from (name)," so at least I'll have that part right. I was a little bummed that Q hasn't shown much interest in sticking heart stickers on the valentines, but oh well.

 

I loved store bought Valentines because they had recognizable, commercial characters on them. I don't think I saved my preschool Valentines, but I do have all the ones I received in elementary school. It's fun to go through them whenever I'm at my parents' house and remember that they are there. Otherwise, I look forward to receiving my doily from you...

 

Heh.

Last year I got very Martha Stewat-y and made valentines by hot gluing a pencil, wings and pompoms to a piece of candy.

This year, the kids picked out ring pops (sorry, but I'm sending in candy - it's payback for all the candy we always get!) which have a sticker on them with the to and from.

My first graders teacher asked the same - no "to's" just "froms". Einey quickly wrote them, with a little bit of complaint because she wanted to write her friends names on them. Maybe I should go back and add "to my 1st grade friend?". I probably won't though.

Meenie's teacher did the list of names. I had to write them though because even though Meenie can write her name, it is too big to fit on the little sticker which fits on the ring pop. Then adding the other name. It was much easier if I did it. Of course, now her V-day party is next week since there is no school today and most kids only go Mon - Wed. She's not going to like that when she finally wakes up :(

On a side note, one way I found to get them to write their names is buy a journal. Then let them write their name on one page a day. Meenie hated trying to write her name and up until September she couldn't. I had journals left over from the pack we brought that we had to send in with Meenie this year (parents send in all the school supplies) so I started with writing her name in highlighter and having her trace it. Then I went to dotting her name and now she write it her own. She also draws little pictures on the rest (I'm working on getting her to draw her shapes a little neater as she has problems with some). Even Moe (whose 3.5) has one. She's still on the hightlighter phase but is getting better at recognizing her name. I fill the page with other letters, numbers and shapes that she traces. Eenie just gets to write, but she only write like one sentence.

Sorry to ramble on...

 

Its nice to see that I was not the only parent stressed out about valentines. My son is 3.5 and would've adored come "Cars" valentines (for a $1.50 at the store) but I got the bright idea to go to swoozie's and get fancy ones ($9.00).

So I did. He picked them out, they have cool monsters on them. Well, I got all 20 done with just his name and I realized I needed 26! I am neurotic, so I had to go get matching ones, so I spent another $9 for 6 more valentines! Am I a sucker or what? $18 for stupid little pieces of paper he can't even read!

If my husband knew he would shoot me :)

 

I have to say that Valentine's Day has got to be one of my least favorite holidays.... Luckily I haven't had to deal with the V-day card pressure since I was probably OS's age. MJ is still too young for it to matter.

I do like the idea of buying glitter an doilies to make cards for my friends.

And I have a friend who takes a picture of her son with his hands help up in the shape of a heart each year as his V-Day card. cute idea, I thought.

 

I wrote something similar for Midwest Parents that I haven't posted yet.

Valentines Day stinks. (Except when you get the gift of broadband...just saying!)

 

Yes! Every year I forget that so many kids (I mean parents) give out candy. I'm standing firm without it though!

 

Ugh. The stress. I totally took the easy way out and did store bought Hotwheels (for Eldest's kindergarten) and Thomas the Train (for Middle's preschool). THEN I had Eldest do all his and then do his brother's!
No candy from us either. I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day in general. Just another day...

 

Just the title of your post stressed me out. Oh... did that whole sign your name thing cause trauma for C, and the pressure to have them "do it themselves" was tremendous. Ugh, ugh, ugh...

I'm glad it's okay on your end, though! ;-)

 

Hi, Alex!

It can get kind of out of hand, can't it? Sometimes I think it's the parents who want to impress more so than the kids with all the treats and such. I remember decorating empty kleenex boxes with construction paper and placing the box on your desk on Valentine's Day, and making valentines at home. Maybe that's a thing of the past? Cute post!

Lizzy

 

Ha! I love this. Yesterday I had grand plans for our snow day -- stay home, make cookies, and make valentines. Well, I sat OS and YS down in the kitchen with stickers and crayons, markers, you name it. Then I cut out 26 heart shapes (because I can't remember how many kdis are even IN OS's class). I asked OS to just sign his name on them. Or just put stickers and I would sign his name. But oh, no, he wanted to make the valentines, that he cut out himself, and cried when the name of the person didn't fit on it, and left altogether. So I put stickers and his name on all 26 hearts and YS tried very very hard to get the scissors. He pulled his high chair over to the cabinets and climbed up, trying each drawer to see where it was. I had to banish him too. Then we made rice crispy treats because I was too stressed out to make actual cookies. When I sent OS off to school this morning, he was only interested in the one valentine he'd cut out for his friend. I never considered candy. I think I am not cut out to be a SAHM, I am not nearly crafty enough.