Valentine's Day isn't just for adults, it's also a great way to highlight the love between family members and recognise friendships. You can make Valentine's Day special for kids by exchanging little class gifts with their friends at school and doing valentines activities.
I also wanted to highlight the love I feel for my own kids here at home, so this year we started a new Valentine's tradition of love hearts on their doors each morning from Feb 1-14.
My kids have always thrived on positive reinforcement so I thought this would be a great way to celebrate Valentine's Day and let them know how much they're loved and boost their self confidence. I want them to always feel noticed, valued and loved {things that I didn't necessarily feel as a child}. By leaving a new love heart each day it's a way for me to say I see you, I appreciate you and I love you.
WHAT IS THE VALENTINE'S DAY HEART ON DOOR TRADITION?
The Valentine's Day heart tradition, sometimes also referred to as a "heart attack", involves leaving a new heart on each child's bedroom door each morning. Each heart highlights a positive attribute the child has e.g. you are a great friend or you are kind {there's more ideas further down in this post}.
Each morning the child will wake up to a new love note from their parents making them feel valued, and by reading the words to themselves it will also reinforce {or boost} their self confidence and self esteem. The great part is anybody can recreate this simple tradition in their own home with just a few basic items.
You will need:
- A pen
- Scissors
- Blu tack
- Coloured cardstock or paper
To make each day's heart simply cut out a heart shape in cardstock or paper and then write the message on the front of the heart. Stick the heart to the child's door during the night after they're asleep so they wake up to it in the morning. I use blu tack to stick them to our doors as it doesn't leave any marks when removed. I also alternate the heart colour each day so they can easily work out which one is the new one.
I've hand cut our hearts, but if you want all the hearts to be the same or you're time poor, you can buy pre cut cardstock hearts. If you only have coloured paper, but have access to a laminator I would recommend laminating them as they will be more sturdy and then you can reuse them each year.
VALENTINES DAY HEART MESSAGES FOR KIDS
Each day you will need a different message for the kids. I make each one special to each individual child making it about their personality traits or abilities that make them who they are, however sometimes they do overlap and both girls end up with the same message {but I put them up on different days}.
I have deliberately chosen not to focus on their physical appearance e.g. you have beautiful blue eyes because I personally don't want my children to link their self worth to their physical attributes, however you can choose to do it differently in your household.
If you do a new heart from Feb 1-14 you will end up with 14 different positive messages, which gets trickier towards the end, so here's some of the positive messages for kids we've used:
- You are brave
- You are kind
- You are compassionate
- You are hard working
- You are honest
- You are important
- You are worthy
- You are special
- You are amazing
- You are determined
- You are resilient
- You are polite
- You are creative
- You are caring
- You are funny
- You are clever
- You are smart
- You are a great dancer
- You are a great reader
- You are a great singer
- You are a great friend
- You are a great helper
- We are proud of you
- We are so lucky to have you
- We love you so much
I decided to start the tradition this year as my eldest can read proficiently and my youngest will be learning to read throughout the year, so I felt like they would both benefit from it rather than my youngest not quite grasping the concept. It has worked really well because even though she can't read yet, she gets so excited each morning and asks her big sister to read her heart to her. She then repeats it to herself and comes and tells me mummy I'm .....
My youngest specifically requested that I add blue hearts to her door along with the pink/purple/red theme I had already started. She's also started drawing her own hearts to copy the message and then cuts them out and puts them on her wall near her bed. I cannot tell you how much it makes my heart melt that she's done this.
ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO DO THE VALENTINES HEARTS ON DOOR IDEA
While this is a popular tradition that many families do, you can make it unique to your family by tweaking it however you like to fit in with your needs. These are some ways you can change it up, but still use the hearts to make kids feel special:
- Instead of leaving a new heart every morning from Feb 1-14, simply cover the door in hearts on Valentine's Day morning.
- Use plain coloured hearts if your kids can't read yet
- Use one special colour for each child
- Add photos of your child as well as hearts
- Add strings to make the hearts look like balloons
- Laminate the hearts to reuse them each year
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