Girls To Grow

Nurturing moms in their walk with God

14 Ways to Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Your Kids

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Holidays are a perfect excuse to spend time with our children making crafts and baking special treats.  With two daughters in our house, we love all the red, pink, and heart-themed ideas that pop up around Valentine’s Day!

Since I’m far from being a crafting queen, I like to keep our projects simple and, as much as possible, use materials and ingredients that are inexpensive or that we already have around the house.  Below, I’ve collected fourteen ideas for marking this “love”-ly occasion.

Source

Here’s a list of cute and simple crafts.  The first four of these come from Michelle at Crafty Morning.  I recently discovered her blog and she has so many neat ideas.

  • One year we made these Strings of Hearts and hung them from our dining room chandelier.

These free, printable Tic Tac Toe Valentine Cards or these Free Printable Valentine’s Day Bingo Games would be fun to play as a family.

While I don’t like eating conversation hearts, I’d buy them just to use in some of these 30 Things You Can Do with Conversation Hearts.

Here’s a super cute Valentine’s Scavenger Hunt for Kids.

Pinterest is full of Valentine’s Day treats, but here are a few of my favorites.

And finally, here’s how we’ve celebrated Valentine’s Day in the past.

How do you like to celebrate Valentine’s Day?

God’s Words on My Walls

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“The LORD bless thee, and keep thee; the LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” Numbers 6:24-26

God gave these words to Aaron, the priest, and his sons to use in blessing the children of Israel.  As I read this passage a few weeks ago, I thought how appropriate it would be as a blessing for our family.

I was excited to find these verses as a print on Etsy.  I found an inexpensive mat and frame at Target and my husband hung it on the wall in our living area.

Beyond that, I want to make this an ongoing tradition in our family.  For years, when my mom mailed me a card or a letter, she would include the words of 3 John 4, ” I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”  I want to do the same with this blessing for our children.

Numbers 6:27 says, “And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.”  It’s exactly what I want for our family – God’s blessings! 

With this print on the wall, we can now see God’s words of blessing every day.

Do you have any Scripture posted around your home?

Learning to Sew

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Our ten-year-old likes arts and crafts.

A couple of Christmases ago, we bought her this Sewing School:  21 Sewing Projects Kids Will Love to Make.  (This is not a sponsored post, just a product we’re enjoying – but the link to Amazon is an affiliate link.)

She spent a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon making pillows and pincushions from old t-shirts, fabric, and felt.  She doesn’t work in silence, though; she had Adventures in Odyssey playing on the Kindle the whole time!  Her older sister joined in the fun for a little while, making the blue circle pillow from an old shirt.

A new project she tried was making the tote bag; adding a pocket on the front was her own idea.

My daughter suggested that I get her a gift card to Jo-Ann’s Fabric Store for Christmas so she can buy new supplies.  I’m glad she’s developing this skill because it’s one I lack!  I sew more than I ever thought I would, though it’s not the fun, creative stuff.  It’s stitching in waistbands to tighten them or sewing a button back on a shirt.  .

Do you sew?  What arts and crafts projects do your children enjoy?

Jewelry Board

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My decorating ideas are few and far between, but here’s one that I’m really enjoying.

Our daughters have had several jewelry boxes over the years.  They work well for small pieces of jewelry, but now that our girls are older and have some “real” jewelry, we needed a way to store it neatly.

Around Christmas time, I looked at some jewelry trees, but didn’t see one that I liked.  Plus, it would have to sit on the top of their dresser, which is already prime real estate.  Then I saw this idea in a magazine – hanging jewelry on a cork or memo board.

Each of our girls already had a board, so we simply added push pins from which we hung the jewelry.

The wooden jumping jack needed a place to hang out,too!

The boards serve as wall decor in their bedroom and allow the girls to instantly see what jewelry is available to wear.

Better Homes and Gardens and Southern Living are two of my favorite magazines to read, so I’m thinking the idea may have come from one of those.

Where do you get ideas for decorating your home?

Play With Your Food

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Since they were very young, our daughters have enjoyed arts and crafts projects.  If they were actually allowed to eat the ingredients we worked with, so much the better! 

Here are five fun ways we’ve used food to not only create art, but also practice fine motor skills.

1.  Chocolate Pudding Paint.  As a teacher, I did this every year with my first grade students.  Let your children finger paint with chocolate pudding on a sheet of waxed paper – after washing their hands well, of course!

2.  Peanut Butter Playdough.  This was another classroom activity that’s so much fun for kids.  I can’t locate my old recipe, but here’s a post with two versions you can try.

3.  Cereal or Pasta Necklaces.  We’ve strung various cereals and pasta shapes on yarn or lacing cord.

4.  Mosaics with rice, beans, pasta, etc.  Print out a plain picture, such as this whale, on a piece of paper (or card stock, if available).  You could use a flower, tree, or any image with simple lines; a coloring book page could work as well.  Outline the picture by gluing on rice, dry beans, or small pasta shapes.

5.  Homemade Ice Cream.  Admittedly it’s winter, but who doesn’t like ice cream anyway?!  There are several ways to make this, but here’s one recipe that involves using zipper-seal bags and is similar to what I’ve done in the past.  You can also read the recipe reviews for variations other than vanilla.

Do you have more ideas for letting your children play with their food?

Binders to the Rescue: Organizing Homeschool Papers

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Many of you know that creating an organized system for some area of our home makes my heart go “pitter-patter!”

When we began homeschooling, I knew I would need a way to file graded papers and other documents and records.  Rather than setting up a plan immediately, I waited a month or two so that I could determine what I really needed.

Remembering how well my recipe binder worked, I decided to do something similar.  I got a two-inch binder and a set of tabbed dividers for each child. (I also purchased a three-hole-punch as I didn’t have one.)  I created sections in the binder for each subject that the girls cover in school.

Behind the tab, I filed each quiz, test, etc., for that particular class.  When our daughters complete special projects, such as the mammal poster our fifth-grader recently made, I can take a photo of it, then print it, and add it to the binder.

My fifth-grader has one set of quizzes that are printed on smaller sheets of paper.  I simply slide all of these into one page protector which is added to the correct subject area.

I also bought a package of special pockets to record our field trips.  I can save pamphlets, ticket stubs, photos, and other memorabilia from each trip that we take and store each set in its own pocket.

While I’m still working on organizing other aspects of homeschooling, at least I feel in complete “teacher mode” now with my binders!

How do you organize your children’s school work or other papers that you need to manage?

A Summertime Treat

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Whether it’s a glass of ice cold lemonade, a slice of watermelon, or a juicy, ripe peach, many of us associate some of our favorite treats with summertime.

Several weeks ago, my husband mentioned the homemade ice cream he remembered eating as a child.  Thinking of what a fun experience it would be for the girls to make homemade ice cream – and being able to know exactly what ingredients went into my dessert – we started researching ice cream machines.

I had NO idea how easy the process had become!  We remembered the mess made with ice and salt as well as the hand-cranking required to produce an icy cold treat.  When I saw the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker and read all the positive reviews, I decided that this was the way to go.  With a coupon and money from a gift card, I was able to purchase one relatively inexpensively and we were in business!

Tuesday night we put the machine to work making vanilla ice cream.  The girls watched the entire fifteen minutes it took for the mixture to churn.  Ten minutes into the process, we poured in chocolate chips.  We served some immediately and it was delicious!  We put the leftovers in the freezer.  As tasty as it was the first night, we found it even better with the firmer texture it had after being frozen for awhile.

I will say that homemade ice cream is not cheaper than store-bought.  Most of the recipes included with the machine call for, along with other ingredients, two cups of cream, which costs me $3.09 at Publix.  This will probably be a once-a-week treat that we’ll all look forward to!

If you’re in the market for an ice cream maker, I highly recommend this particular one.  It performed exactly as described.  My husband’s only complaint?  That we couldn’t make more at one time!  Although, that’s probably a good thing!!

What’s your favorite summertime treat?  Do you have childhood memories of making homemade ice cream?

Link to Amazon.com is an affiliate link.

I Didn’t Know I Had It in Me

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You know me as the self-proclaimed, non-creative type, lacking even one “artsy-craftsy” bone in her body. While I don’t expect that to change in a big way, I did manage a minor breakthrough.

My ten-year-old “bought” a small bulletin board through a rewards program her school teacher uses for her 4th grade class. She was very excited about having my husband hang it on the wall in her bedroom so that she could attach important papers and notices to it.

I thought there had to be a way to dress up the board, and my light-bulb moment produced an idea for covering the plain wooden border with ribbon.

Two trips to Michaels later, I came home with a ribbon I thought my daughter would like since it included her favorite color – blue. (Just to show you how much of a novice I am at this type of thing….I measured the perimeter of the board and thought I would need 3 three-yard rolls of ribbon. Well, I didn’t even use one whole roll. I’m thankful that I could return the rest!)

Yes, I actually do own a glue gun – which worked perfectly for attaching the ribbon.

My daughter has thanked me several times and told me how pretty she thinks her board looks.

I fear that this burst of inspiration, however, has exhausted me for the time being, so I imagine it will be awhile before I have anything else like this to share!

Homemade French Bread: Another Baking Success!

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After having relative success with baking a loaf of homemade bread last week, I was excited to see Jen at Beauty and Bedlam post a v-log and recipe for homemade French Bread. I decided to give it a try, following her recipe but halving it in order to make just one loaf. (I didn’t want to waste the ingredients in case it didn’t turn out well. Oh me of little faith!!) I also don’t have a Kitchen Aid mixer, so I did all of the kneading by hand. If I did this every day, I’d be able to take some one down in arm wrestling!

Would you believe that this was even better than the bread I made last week! It was so delicious and not at all difficult to bring together. Now I just need to buy stock in flour and yeast and I’ll be set!

In the interest of keeping it real: while I was typing this post, I realized that a chicken breast I was boiling for supper had been cooking away on the stove for an indeterminate amount of time and may now be too rubbery to eat. A gentle reminder that I still have a long way to go in becoming a true Suzy Homemaker!

I’ll be back later today with my grocery savings post!

Celebrating Valentine’s Day

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We’re rather low-key when it comes to Valentine’s Day, but I definitely want to take advantage of any opportunity to let my husband and our daughters know that they are loved! Here are a few things that we do around our house.

  1. Bake heart-shaped cookies together. The girls and I roll out simple sugar cookie dough and use our heart-shaped cookie cutters to make various-sized cookies. We decorate them with sprinkles, icing or other small pink, red and white candies.

  2. My husband gives each girl a heart-shaped box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day morning. The girls’ school sells Valentine balloons each year, so we also order one of those for each of our daughters and have it delivered to their classroom.

  3. A Kisses treasure hunt. This is a new one for us, but I read this idea in my February issue of Family Fun magazine. The night before Valentine’s Day, I’ll hide ten Hershey’s Kisses for each child in various places around the house. Each one will be assigned a different color wrapping (red or silver) and will set out to find their kisses when they wake up the next morning.

  4. Dinner out. My husband takes all three of his “girls” out to dinner. Since restaurants tend to be quite crowded on Valentine’s Day, we’ll often go out the night before. If that’s the case, I try to serve a nice dinner with candlelight on the actual Valentine’s day.

Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day in some special way with your family? I’d love to hear about it! Making memories with those we love works for me! Visit Works for Me Wednesday for tips of every kind.

photo courtesy public domain pictures