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Creative Ways to Show Kids You Love Them
These ten playful, love-filled ideas will create memories your children will treasure long after the holiday ends.
Bake your own fortune cookies with personalized messages inside to remind your kids just how lucky you are to have them. Find recipes online at AllRecipes.com. Got baker’s block? Order custom cookies online at KCFortuneCookieFactory.com.
Write your child’s name on in a heart on your bicep tattoo-style, snap a photo, and send the picture to her cell phone or email account. She may laugh or groan, “Oh, Mom…you’re so lame,” but deep down she’ll know you love her.
Give your kids the gift of giggles with Mad Libs in Love by Roger Price and Leonard Stern (Price Stern Sloan, 2001, $3.99), a collection of 24 stories for kids to complete using nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives of their choosing. Aimed at kids ages 4-8, these wacky stories make loving fun.
Write a Valentine note on small strips of paper and slip each strip into an inflated balloon before tying the knots. Let your child hop and pop and then re-assemble the phrases of your love letter. Make sure to keep balloon bits away from little mouths— – they can be a choking hazard.
Je t’aime (French). Te amo (Spanish). Aloha wau ia oe (Hawaiian). Ich liebe dich (German). Wo ie ni (Chinese). Make a set of heart-shaped flashcards. On one side, write “I Love You” in a foreign language. On the reverse, give three hints to the language displayed. For instance, “Home of the Eiffel Tower,; Capital Ccity is Paris,; Famous Lleader was Napoleon Bonaparte.” You’ll build social studies skills and laugh like crazy pronouncing your love for each other. Find “I Love You” in more than a hundred languages online at RomanceStuck.com.
Make lunchtime all about hearts by cutting kids’ sandwiches into a heart shape using a cookie cutter or knife. Want to go all out? Buy bread tinted pink at your local bakery to make sandwiches extra-Valentiney.
Make bath time extra special with bubble bath, heart-shaped soaps, and pink and red bath tub paints. To make your own, mix a few drops of food coloring into a dollop of shaving cream in a bowl. Let kids paint the walls of the tub or themselves for some foamy fun. Be careful to check that the paints won’t stain fixtures or skin before indulging.
Give your child a book that says how much you love him. For little readers, try I Love You Through and Through (by Bernadette Shustak, Cartwheel, 2005). Take an older child on a date to the bookstore and enjoy a hot chocolate together while browsing. Call it a date.
Buy a do-it-yourself puzzle card or create one yourself by mounting a picture and message on cardstock and cutting puzzle pieces your child can reassemble. Decorate a box or envelope to hold the pieces.
Have a scavenger hunt at home. Hide chocolate kisses with clues attached to direct your child to a final family event— – perhaps a love-themed movie night or an indoor dinner picnic complete with a heart-shaped pizza. Spending time together is the best way to show your love.
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