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Even though Valentine's Day is more about romantic love, in our home we like to focus on family love during the month of February. Each year I try to find some way to motivate the kids to show extra love to their siblings, and this year I thought we'd do a Kindness Countdown.
I had so many different ideas for how to do the countdown and I couldn't decide which I liked best, so I made four. You can choose your favorite. :)
I like the envelopes and the little packages because it's a surprise what the assignment will be for the day. I tell the kids that these are like Secret Missions. Kids love secret missions. Each morning they are to choose one package, open it, and complete what is written on the heart. Once completed, they can eat the Hershey Kiss inside the package. They can then take the heart and tape it up by our "Love at Home" sign. This will be a way to show how many good things they've been doing for each other. I also have extra hearts they can tape up if they want to do extra good deeds each day.
For the secret missions, I tried to think of things I'd like to see my kids do for each other. Also, if someone is having a hard time with a sibling, I will write on the heart for them to do something specifically for that sibling, such as "Make Joshua's Bed". Just substitute a name each time I wrote "someone". It's easier to love each other when we serve each other.
Here are some secret kindness mission ideas:
1. make a bed
2. clear someone's dishes for them
3. put away some toys
4. give someone a hug
5. let someone else have the first turn
6. hold the door open for someone
7. write a nice note for someone
8. read a book to someone
9. play a game with someone (and let them win)
10. leave one of these kisses on someone's pillow (I put 2 kisses in this package)
11. help someone get breakfast
12. draw a picture for someone
13. help someone clean their room
14. tell someone what you like about them
15. call your grandparents to tell them you love them
16. write a thank you note to daddy
17. write a thank you note to mommy
18. put away someone's laundry
19. hide notes of love in someone's room
20. clear the dishwasher unasked
(Here is the PDF of the hearts I used with my kids with some blank ones to add your own)
All of these are ones they can do in the home, but you could expand it to include kindness outside the home as well. What ideas would you add?
I think the envelopes are my favorite method of delivery. All I used was felt, a glue gun
and a button. And they are reusable, so that's good. I cut a piece of felt into a long rectangle, glued it to make a pocket, rounded the top, cut a slit where I wanted a button, and used a little dab of hot glue to adhere the button. No sewing involved.
For the paper packages, I used double sided tape
to make a loop of cute paper, flattened one end and sealed with double sided tape, filled it with the kiss and heart and sealed the other side with double sided tape. They'll have to tear it to open it, so . . . not reusable.
For the roses, I took two kisses, wrapped them in red cellophane, stuck in a small skewer
and wrapped it with floral tape. Then I tied on some curly ribbon and slid the heart up onto the ribbon. The kids who don't get this one will protest since each of these has two kisses and the other packages only have one. I'll just have to eat the second kiss each day to make things fair.
I had an old broken picture frame I used for the last countdown calendar. I tied/hot glued 3 pieces of twine across the frame and used little clothespins to attach the hearts and kisses. It's cute, but the kids might think it disappointing that the secret missions aren't very secret. I guess I could've folded the hearts so they couldn't see what was inside. Next time . . .
Which is your favorite?
Here are some more ideas for focusing on family love during February:
"Love at Home" sign and activity
Filling our Home with Love
The Love Bug
Special Valentine's Day Breakfast
And be sure to check out my Valentine's Day board on Pinterest for more great ideas!
Follow Chicken Babies's board Valentines on Pinterest.
This post is part of 100 Acts of Kindness Challenge from Toddler Approved and Coffee Cups and Crayons! Head over to check out more great ideas for spreading kindness!
