It’s a month away! Get your love shaking with this musical Valentine’s day craft.  There is nothing my son loves more than music ( well maybe garbage trucks) and any craft that can be used for something besides decorating your fridge is a huge plus in my book.  The novelty of the peek a boo window made this an even bigger hit!  Have fun, shake it and make some music !

1. Gather your materials. You will need 2 paper plates, red paint, a sponge brush or roller ( helps the paint dry faster so you can play with it faster too!), some jingle bells, some pom poms , a zip lock bag, packing tape or a stapler, scissors and glitter glue.
2. Start by drawing a heart on the inside of one plate.
3. Paint the outsides of both plates.
4. Add glitter if you want!
5. Let dry. We patted ours dry with a paper towel so we could keep going.
6. Cut zip lock so that one layer covers the heart opening. Tape well.
7. Pop the pom poms and jingle bells in the plate.
8. Tape the top to the bottom. We used packing tape because I can’t find my stapler . If you are stapling it make sure that the staples are close together so that no jingle bells fall out. * Also if you have young ones that are  still popping little things in their mouths try ripped pieces of paper instead of pom poms, and dry rice!

Books

Valentine’s Day by Anne Rockwell and Lizzy Rockwell is a lovely book with a a cute twist. The story follows a class making special valentines for each other , some are very touching others goofy. The story doesn’t reveal who the Valentine’s are for. There are pictures of the same girl with the various students though so after a while you are clued into that they are for her we still don’t know why. I was so worried she was sick in the hospital, as it turns out the class goes to the post office to send it away to a classmate that is far far away! I like the idea of a class all writing to a friend far away, focusing on friendship and not candy! I also love any book that causes my son to say ” Let’s go see a map of where she lives mama!”

Happy Valentine’s Day, Dolores by Barbara Samuels is hilarious. If you are a younger sister, or older sister you will relate to this book. My son didn’t really get it but loved the illustrations especially the one of Dolores in music class. Here is the run down of the story; Dolores snoops in her older sister’s room. They fight about it and she stops, until she can’t take it anymore. Before Valentine’s Day she sneaks in and finds a necklace in her sister’s drawer.  She ends up wearing it and loosing it and going to hilarious lengths to get a new one before her sister notices it’s gone.  I applaud the author for having her fake a veterinary emergency with ketchup! Very funny , cute book but geared more to the 4-6 year old group.

I Lost My Kisses by Trudie Trewin is cute story about a little cow who has lost her kisses! She looks everywhere for them, gives wonderful descriptions of what kisses are, sound and feel like but she just can’t find them. The thing is , is that she is picking her daddy up at the airport and has to give him a kiss when he arrives! Luckily her heart find them when she sees her daddy.  My son loved this book, he is an affectionate kid and loves to tease us that he is “all out of kisses” so this book was right up his alley! Very cute and I love the mostly black and white illustrations by Nick Bland.