Easy Tips for Quality Family Time on Valentine’s Day

I hope you are planning to spend time on Valentine’s Day with your family. Here are some easy tips for quality family time to help you express your love to others in a fun way.

• Hide candy hearts or chocolate kisses in cereal, under lettuce leaf, or in other food.

• Make pancakes in the form of a heart. Serve with strawberries and whipped cream.

• Set out paper place mats and decorate them with a Valentines Day theme.

• Write an “I love you” note with soap on your bathroom mirror.

• Listen to your children with your eyes and heart as well as your ears.

• Plan a treasure hunt by leaving little notes around the house expressing your appreciation for something others did. End with a riddle or clue to the next hiding place where they will find a candy or special memento. Have something special at the last hiding place such as a toy or treat.

• Show your love and appreciation to others. Affirming statements such as “I love you just the way you are; I’m so glad you’re my (son, daughter, mother, father, friend)” need to be given often, not only on Valentines Day.

There are lots more suggestions for this and other special days  in Cooking Around the Calendar With Kids — Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun. This is a fun book you can read and use all year long.

Lee Jackson
Family and Parenting Studies