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To Celebrate the Valentine's day with Children was considered weird when I was little. Valentine's Day was not as popular as it is right now. My country might be late for the Valentines's day since we are in Asia and Valentine's day might be viewed differently across the world as there are different cultures that give influence toward this day. However, Valentine's day is generally considered as a day to express special love.
The message of love behind the Valentine's Day is great for everyone to know and to do. Unfortunately, the classical content of love is often connected to the romanticism between men and women generally which is not suitable to the children's context. Therefore, we need to be careful choosing resources to approach the Valentine's Day with children due to the content and delivery. On the other hand, Valentine's Day is very important for me due to the love message, without all of the commercialism behind it. Here are some tips and resources to approach
Tips and Online Resources to Celebrate The Valentine's Day with Children
Watch and Read before You Share
There are a lot of videos and text to introduce Valentine's Day. Since it is often connected to the romance, we need to be careful to select the resources, especially if it is aimed for the children. Pay attention to the content. Well, for us in Indonesia, I need to be quite selective as our culture is much different from the western culture mostly. Therefore, pre-reading and pre-watching are must be done before I deliver the resources to children.
Introduce and Approach the Valentine's Day from The Historical Background
Many people think that the Valentine's Day is related to the Catholics since it is often preceded with the abbreviation or title Saint. Most of the Valentine's Day history is often started with this point. I think there is a relationship between the facts and myths of the Valentine's Day. Here are some links I found good to introduce The Valentine's Day to children. However, one more time, please watch and read first before you give to children. What are acceptable for me might not for you.
Valentine's Day from History.com
There are videos with the Valentine's Day topic that should be acceptable for teenagers:
- History of Valentine's Day
- History of Chocolate
- Valentine's Card
There are also some interesting articles about the Valentine's Day. They are quite surprising and fun for teenager children to read:
- Valentine's Day Facts
- 6 Surprising Facts about Valentine's Day
- Celebrating Valentine’s Day With a Box of Chocolates
Approach the Valentine's Day from The Religion Background
The message of love in the Valentine's Day is very suitable with religions. We are a Catholic family, so I would like to encourage all Christians to
- Involve the bible in activities.
- Make a bookmark with love as the topic of bible verses
- Copy work or tracing the love topic bible verses
- Read and meditate or memorize the love topic bible verses
- Discussion and self-evaluation
- Pray for and by each other in the family, relative, and neighborhood environment.
- Sending prayer in written forms to others
- Pray each other together in a circle with family members or others.
Get Children to Take Action
Valentine's Day is about love to others. Valentine's Day is not about romantic love. You can get children to show their love and attention toward people around them, such as:
- Helping grandmother to mow the garden.
- Making a new acquaintance with new person or neighbor.
- Visiting the orphanage
You might have some brainstorming with children about what errands they can do to make people happy. There are also some family activity you can do together:
- Snuggling on the sofa and reading some books with Valentine's day topic or books that show compassion.
- Watching family movies together at home or in the cinema while having some popcorn.
- Cooking some soup or dishes for dinner.
- Baking some heart-shaped cookies or cake involving family members.
- Decorating the house with some Valentine's day topics, such as cupids or hearts.
Have Some Fun and Arts Activities from Online Resources
In some special days, it is great to have like a refreshing days which are still controlled. Some arts and fun “survival kit” activities for multiple ages. There are a lot of sites for the Valentine's Day arts activities. Here are some that I like:
Activity Village: Valentine's Day
This site has around 25 activities for children in the preschool levels to elementary level, including
- coloring
- maze
- arts
- notebooking activities
- games
- decoration.
There are also some videos of songs and party.
Primary Games: Valentine's Day
There are around 12 links in the site contains random light activities to do with the Valentine's day topic. The special things in this site is the electronic games for children. The other things are the same like the previous site.
DLTK Holiday: Valentine
Here are some links available in the site:
- Valentine's Day Card
- Valentine's Day Coloring Pages
- Valentine's Day Craft
- Valentine's Day Games and Puzzles
- Valentine's Day Poem
- Valentine's Day Recipe
- etc
Valentine's Day Children Books
Books for children aged 4-8
Pete the Cat: Valentine's Day Is Cool
Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse! (If You Give…)Happy Valentine's Day, Curious GeorgeLittle Critter: Happy Valentine's Day, Little Critter!Day It Rained HeartsThe Night Before Valentine's DayLlama Llama I Love YouFancy Nancy: Heart to HeartThe Story of Valentine's DayThe Berenstain Bears' Valentine PartyLove from The Very Hungry CaterpillarThe Biggest Valentine EverRoses Are Pink, Your Feet Really StinkSaint ValentineMy Fuzzy Valentine (Sesame Street)Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentime (Junie B. Jones #14)
&
Classical Romantic Literature
Child's Introduction to Greek Mythology: The Stories of the Gods, Goddesses, Heroes, Monsters, and Other Mythical Creatures
Romeo and Juliet for Kids (Shakespeare Can Be Fun!)The Adventures of Robin Hood (Classic Starts)Antony and Cleopatra (The Shakespeare Collection)Pocahontas and Captain John SmithThe OdysseyTarzan: The Complete Adventures of Edgar Rice BurroughsArthur & Lancelot: The Fight for Camelot (An English Legend) (Graphic Myths and Legends)
You might also find other Valentine's Day activity with children in our Pinterest board.
We also have a notebooking page set made to link the Valentine's Day and the legendary couples in the classical literature and mythology that you might enjoy with affordable price
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