Valentine's Day cards with painted hearts

It’s hard to believe that January is behind us and we are in the thick of February already! Valentine’s Day almost passed me by, but instead the girls and I got creative and made our own Valentines Day cards with painted hearts!

So Valentine’s Day is not a big thing in our family, we don’t typically give gifts or go out anywhere special, instead we might give each other little cards or messages of love and thanks. What do you do?

This year Possum (aged 6 years) and Boo (aged 3 years) wanted to paint hearts on cards. I have to admit, a part of me didn’t really feeling like getting out the paint and having to deal with the clean up afterwards. Instead I suggested that we paint cut our hearts in a unique way, something similar to when we painted paper with toy cars.

Recommended age: 2 years +
(Strict and active supervision is always required)

Valentine’s Day cards with painted hearts

To do this Valentine’s Day activity with your children, you’ll need –

box
white paper
scissors
small ball
red paint
sequens (optional)

So quite simply, I cut out some paper hearts, added them to the base of the box, threw in some squirts of red paint and a ball. Then the girls took it in turns to tilt the box in various angels, which would see the ball roll into the paint and spread over the cut out paper hearts.

Brilliant!

They turned out so well and it was lots of great fun for the girls.

I took Boo a little bit longer to work out how to coordinate the box so that the ball would touch the paint and smear over the paper hearts. It was fun watching her learn this skill and overcome any frustration when the ball didn’t go where she wanted it to.

This activity is great for –

Developing coordination
Concentration
Cause and effect
Learning process over product
Appreciation of those around them
Appreciating the gift of giving

I also love that it teaches children that a lot of fun can come from recycling old boxes.

Finally, once the decorated paper hearts were dry the girls added them to come folded white paper to create a card. They then chose to add red sequins around the painted hearts for a bit of bling!

Once everything was dry they then wrote a lovely message inside.

What do you think?

Would you like to receive a Valentine’s Day card from your child like this one?

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