Valentine’s Hearts Made together with Toddlers

Now I know: holidays have been invented to direct parents’ imagination to what crafts can be made together with children! I don’t think it would have occurred to me to make something in the shape of a heart together with our little daughter (21 mo) if not for St. Valentine’s Day. And in these hearts we managed to reflect an idea which is very important for every child: the family is one whole and each loves the others which means that everything is fine and the surrounding world is stable and joyful!

And here are our ideas:

A Heart from Sticking Notes

Such a heart was made by us quite spontaneously – Soniya found a pack of sticking notes among office accessories.

The craft which seems quite simple served many educational ideas:

• we revised colours sticking the notes to the hearts made of white construction paper and then we were looking for notes of the same colour;
• we were working at fine motor skills – our little one started tearing off and then sticking again the notes, not once; finally she began drawing with pencils and felt-tip pens;
• we were working at the composition (each time it was a new one ) ;
• learning the letters – afterwards Soniya could somehow guess where the words “mummy”, “daddy” and “Soniya” were written; she also started “writing” herself imitating the movements of my hand;

While we were writing the members of our family on the notes, I said several times, “All: mummy, daddy, Soniya!” And, you know, it became so warm somewhere inside me (it is so important to pronounce joyous ideas loudly!) especially when the child started repeating the words after me!

A Flower Heart

This craft also helped working at fine motor skills. I cut the heart out of the painting made by Sonya and glued one more heart of the same size to it. Then, together with our daughter, we made holes along the edges of the heart (with a hole punch – the tot was amazed!) and then Soniya started lacing (the initial idea is taken from The Artful Parent). The heart was placed on a broken branch (found while walking in the morning) decorated with a ribbon. The leaves were made from staples.

A Tree with Leaves-Hearts

The trunk of the tree is semolina mixed with coffee. Soniya put glue on the construction paper and then sprinkled it with the mixture. Then she glued the leaves. She was struggling for the opportunity to write on the leaves herself. So, it was a bit hard for me to write “mummy, daddy, Soniya” at least once.

Anastasia

You can read this article in Russian here

Illustrations to the article

Photos by the author