omg can we please all agree to just buy the dumb little classroom exchange cards (with a small candy or temporary tattoo or whatever) that we all exchanged as kids?? i cannot take another high-expectations project, and the curated, personalized goody bags that some kids brought to our three-year-old(!)'s daycare class last year were so wild
It’s even better than I expected. Also, isn’t it something when someone I worked with in 2012 liked this photo? We (you and I) don’t know each other! But apparently we know at least one person in common. The world can be so small!
He insisted on busting out the chef hat (the grandparents who gifted it to him years before now love this photo the MOST, it’s very cute) and on bringing a bottle of ketchup. All him tho. Kids are so funny. And who is your co worker?? The world is SMALL ♥️
Valentines: our school strictly forbids anything edible. My now-5th grader always makes necklaces for each kid in his class. When he was in Kindergarten it was a handful of pony beads and heart beads on a piece of yarn. Now he’s in 5th he 3D prints a bunch of hearts and puts each one on a string. The trick for me is to let him do it and just look away when I’m getting impatient 😂 His big brothers were both store bought card kids - the punnier the better.
Omg 3D prints! So cool. Love that it's his thing now!
Last year my then 5 and 3 year olds wanted to make bracelets for everyone in their class — it was so fun and thoughtful... and also too ambitious for a 3 and 5 year old lol. They worked hard on a few but I underestimated the time it'd take so of course ended up stringing the majority of them myself the night before Valentine's Day. My takeaway: if we're doing homemade, I need to start weeks ahead of time so they can actually do it instead of me!
Yes!! Good advice on the timing! Also I try to remember that a completed necklace might only have 3 or 4 beads on it - much more manageable if I help my kid aim lower.
Oooh also, I do a homemade version of the Oso and me prize ball Caro recommended last v day for my kids at home!!! Theirs is so cute but so pricey and the prizes are for older kids (mine are 2 and 4.5). You wrap paper streamers around a toy and layer them into a ball (I am too tired to explain this well but look at the oso and me one and it will explain itself). I buy random used junk from our local consignment shop. It’s like $10 and they’re entertained unwrapping it for a minimum of 30 min. It seriously is so fun and somehow makes Valentine’s Day one of their faves? We live in Maine so anything that gets us through the winter months with littles is 100!!
Walmart had bluey and paw patrol chapsticks! I think 8 for $5? My daughter is very excited to give her friends chapstick…reasonable and practical! Put in a little cello bag with a ribbon and call it a day!
my kid (who is now in HS) was always grumpy about having to give valentines to everyone in his class. a couple of years he actually made his own cards from scratch -- including one year where he drew very detailed anatomy-type hearts (with a caption that said: [real heart])
Bandaids! Sometimes you can find dollar boxes of bandaids at target, glo sticks, little bags of goldfish or snack stuff that parents will use. Please no candy or slime. I don’t need my kids loosing their shit. Also if you are crafty, make Canva stickers that say something general like “love Steve” that are kind of holiday neutral then slap them on all your kid’s classroom favor days. I did red and white stickers for my daughter and this work for Christmas and valentines and her bday
this is genius!! can you print the stickers straight from canva? real n00b over here in the mom-crafting department (daughter is 3 and juuuuust starting to care about passing out valentine’s etc.)
Candy is totally great for classroom valentines, but as an allergy mom I’ve gotta throw a plug in there for non-edible items if doable for you! We are doing mini water color sets (found in bulk on amazon for not much $) for my child’s classmates with a quick canva printable about friends adding color to our world or some similar phrasing. Easy, cute, and hopefully inclusive!
I’m another allergy mom and totally agree!! We’re lucky that my son’s preschool doesn’t allow food with Valentines. We’re doing temporary tattoos with ours!
Check school rules. Our school does not allow homemade for shared treats. All shared treats must be store bought and in the original packaging when it arrives at school.
For kids valentines, we just buy the little paper ones we had as kids. They’re a little fancier these days with stickers, and they do the job. We don’t need any more little dinky plastic things. My son did receive a foam air plane valentine one year, that was a huge hit until it broke…Just buy the paper ones from Target! 🤷🏼♀️
At our school they exchange cards but there is no candy or food allowed, and nothing homemade can be sent per Texas law. Sometimes parents try to send cookies or cupcakes or something and they can’t serve it to the kids so they will put it in the teacher’s lounge. Kinda sad but it makes it easy for parents because you don’t need to worry about it.
I only have one left in elementary school, so I’ve done a LOT of school valentines! Big fan of non-candy if the kid was cool with it, we’d cut up cardstock and print out messages from the computer to glue. Write names, washi tape to add the treat, done. Kids and I would divide tasks depending on age/ability and bang it out. My fav treats has been little googly eyes ring-things and animal-shaped puzzle erasers (you can get a bag of wrapped ones on Amazon).
As my girls got older they’d make increasingly elaborate valentines, but that was all on them! My last kid couldn’t care less, and we’ve now gone to heart lollipops you can just write on the wrapper, since this is definitely not a battle to fight!
yesss definitely making this pimento dip for super bowl!! and I’m going to trust you that it shouldn’t/doesn’t need to be baked but only because it’s you lol
omg can we please all agree to just buy the dumb little classroom exchange cards (with a small candy or temporary tattoo or whatever) that we all exchanged as kids?? i cannot take another high-expectations project, and the curated, personalized goody bags that some kids brought to our three-year-old(!)'s daycare class last year were so wild
Ok IM IN
co-sign, do nothing until the kids make you, then do exactly what they want (even if it's insane), this is the WAY
last year my son took individually wrapped hot dogs to his whole class for valentines "it's too much sweet stuff, we need something to mix it up"
Best plan ever!!
Omg this whole thread is everything! EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ IT!!!
HI CLARKIE BOOKPRTY REPRESENT!!!
Lololol and @Rachel is a Book Party reader! WHAT A WORLD!
Your kid is my spirit animal
Wish I could share a picture. He packed them up in a cooler, took two to the office ladies
Oh my goodness. GOOD JOB MAMA ❤️❤️❤️
https://www.instagram.com/p/Coplln_pXKB/?img_index=1&igsh=MTd5YWVoajdjZTBudw==
this is... beautiful
I love this so hard. 🌭❤️
It’s even better than I expected. Also, isn’t it something when someone I worked with in 2012 liked this photo? We (you and I) don’t know each other! But apparently we know at least one person in common. The world can be so small!
He insisted on busting out the chef hat (the grandparents who gifted it to him years before now love this photo the MOST, it’s very cute) and on bringing a bottle of ketchup. All him tho. Kids are so funny. And who is your co worker?? The world is SMALL ♥️
Valentines: our school strictly forbids anything edible. My now-5th grader always makes necklaces for each kid in his class. When he was in Kindergarten it was a handful of pony beads and heart beads on a piece of yarn. Now he’s in 5th he 3D prints a bunch of hearts and puts each one on a string. The trick for me is to let him do it and just look away when I’m getting impatient 😂 His big brothers were both store bought card kids - the punnier the better.
Omg 3D prints! So cool. Love that it's his thing now!
Last year my then 5 and 3 year olds wanted to make bracelets for everyone in their class — it was so fun and thoughtful... and also too ambitious for a 3 and 5 year old lol. They worked hard on a few but I underestimated the time it'd take so of course ended up stringing the majority of them myself the night before Valentine's Day. My takeaway: if we're doing homemade, I need to start weeks ahead of time so they can actually do it instead of me!
Yes!! Good advice on the timing! Also I try to remember that a completed necklace might only have 3 or 4 beads on it - much more manageable if I help my kid aim lower.
Oooh also, I do a homemade version of the Oso and me prize ball Caro recommended last v day for my kids at home!!! Theirs is so cute but so pricey and the prizes are for older kids (mine are 2 and 4.5). You wrap paper streamers around a toy and layer them into a ball (I am too tired to explain this well but look at the oso and me one and it will explain itself). I buy random used junk from our local consignment shop. It’s like $10 and they’re entertained unwrapping it for a minimum of 30 min. It seriously is so fun and somehow makes Valentine’s Day one of their faves? We live in Maine so anything that gets us through the winter months with littles is 100!!
OK love this!! I feel like I could even just find tiny toys they already own and it'd still be fun wrapped up like this
Walmart had bluey and paw patrol chapsticks! I think 8 for $5? My daughter is very excited to give her friends chapstick…reasonable and practical! Put in a little cello bag with a ribbon and call it a day!
Brilliant! My 4 year old is *obsessed* with chapstick
Ok real question about this pimiento cheese situation haha. Is the skillet necessary or is it just for looks when mixing the dip? 🤣
It's for cooking the bacon and jalapeño. You could stir it all together in another bowl, but then you'd have to dirty up another bowl.
my kid (who is now in HS) was always grumpy about having to give valentines to everyone in his class. a couple of years he actually made his own cards from scratch -- including one year where he drew very detailed anatomy-type hearts (with a caption that said: [real heart])
I just made the Thai chicken chop. My life is changed.
Bandaids! Sometimes you can find dollar boxes of bandaids at target, glo sticks, little bags of goldfish or snack stuff that parents will use. Please no candy or slime. I don’t need my kids loosing their shit. Also if you are crafty, make Canva stickers that say something general like “love Steve” that are kind of holiday neutral then slap them on all your kid’s classroom favor days. I did red and white stickers for my daughter and this work for Christmas and valentines and her bday
this is genius!! can you print the stickers straight from canva? real n00b over here in the mom-crafting department (daughter is 3 and juuuuust starting to care about passing out valentine’s etc.)
Candy is totally great for classroom valentines, but as an allergy mom I’ve gotta throw a plug in there for non-edible items if doable for you! We are doing mini water color sets (found in bulk on amazon for not much $) for my child’s classmates with a quick canva printable about friends adding color to our world or some similar phrasing. Easy, cute, and hopefully inclusive!
I’m another allergy mom and totally agree!! We’re lucky that my son’s preschool doesn’t allow food with Valentines. We’re doing temporary tattoos with ours!
For the kid Valentine's cards... I bought some generic Pokemon ones off Amazon and he'll write his name on them and pass them out to his classmates.
Check school rules. Our school does not allow homemade for shared treats. All shared treats must be store bought and in the original packaging when it arrives at school.
For kids valentines, we just buy the little paper ones we had as kids. They’re a little fancier these days with stickers, and they do the job. We don’t need any more little dinky plastic things. My son did receive a foam air plane valentine one year, that was a huge hit until it broke…Just buy the paper ones from Target! 🤷🏼♀️
At our school they exchange cards but there is no candy or food allowed, and nothing homemade can be sent per Texas law. Sometimes parents try to send cookies or cupcakes or something and they can’t serve it to the kids so they will put it in the teacher’s lounge. Kinda sad but it makes it easy for parents because you don’t need to worry about it.
I only have one left in elementary school, so I’ve done a LOT of school valentines! Big fan of non-candy if the kid was cool with it, we’d cut up cardstock and print out messages from the computer to glue. Write names, washi tape to add the treat, done. Kids and I would divide tasks depending on age/ability and bang it out. My fav treats has been little googly eyes ring-things and animal-shaped puzzle erasers (you can get a bag of wrapped ones on Amazon).
As my girls got older they’d make increasingly elaborate valentines, but that was all on them! My last kid couldn’t care less, and we’ve now gone to heart lollipops you can just write on the wrapper, since this is definitely not a battle to fight!
yesss definitely making this pimento dip for super bowl!! and I’m going to trust you that it shouldn’t/doesn’t need to be baked but only because it’s you lol