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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Have Nothing Planned For Valentine's Day
Josiegirl 02:47 AM 01-31-2018
What are you all doing? I want to keep it simple. No exchanging cards because it's chaotic, the kids don't care and it's just extra work for dcps. Don't really want to decorate or have a party. Bleh, so not into it right now.
Maybe I'll make some heart cookies and let the dcks decorate them. Any simple artsy craftsy ideas?
Thanks!
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Cat Herder 03:10 AM 01-31-2018
We are making mini-cheesecakes and washing strawberries together for afternoon snack. They can take some that they make home to their parents if they don't get too erm, well, you know. If in doubt I will make some for them to give their parents/siblings.
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DaveA 03:25 AM 01-31-2018
Honestly I'm not doing a dang thing for Valentine's Day with DCKs.
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Mad_Pistachio 03:33 AM 01-31-2018
13-th is Mardi Gras. Try looking into masks and over-eating sissy pink hearts are so last century...
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Cat Herder 03:58 AM 01-31-2018
Originally Posted by Mad_Pistachio:
13-th is Mardi Gras. Try looking into masks and over-eating sissy pink hearts are so last century...
But Kingscake is too hard to make with daycare kids, plus the plastic babies inside are kinda freaky in the wrong context. I don't want to hold that conference.

https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/mi...1-c46abe1fc7d5 - I take that back, just found an easy one.
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Jupadia 05:31 AM 01-31-2018
We will do a card exchange and have the kids decorate bags for the cards, probley make mom and dad a card as well.
For lunch we will have pink pancakes and milk (with eggs and veg).
For snack we have birthday cupcakes cause it's also my son's birthday so I save a treat for that.
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Cat Herder 06:01 AM 01-31-2018
https://www.thehappierhomemaker.com/...esecake-bites/

I realized I forgot to give the cheesecake activity link.

I am doing it mostly because I want to have fresh cheesecake for my husband after dinner on valentines.
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LostMyMarbles 07:20 AM 01-31-2018
We will decorate bags a couple of days a head for the Valentine Exchange. We play games that have a lot of pink Foo-Foo hearts, like pin the heart on Cupid. We decorate heart-shaped cookies. And make heart-shaped pizzas
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Josiegirl 09:51 AM 01-31-2018
Originally Posted by Mad_Pistachio:
13-th is Mardi Gras. Try looking into masks and over-eating sissy pink hearts are so last century...
I love it! And lately I've got the whole over-eating thing down.
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Ariana 10:09 AM 01-31-2018
I have a big heart cookie cutter than we usually practice tracing with, we do painting with pink and red and we have strawberry pancakes in heart shapes for lunch. Nothing fancy!
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AmyKidsCo 12:18 PM 01-31-2018
My families love the Valentine exchange so we'll do that. We'll decorate bags and have red/pink/white food all day. That's pretty much it.
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Mad_Pistachio 06:04 PM 01-31-2018
Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
But Kingscake is too hard to make with daycare kids, plus the plastic babies inside are kinda freaky in the wrong context. I don't want to hold that conference.

https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/mi...1-c46abe1fc7d5 - I take that back, just found an easy one.
I have no idea what Kingscake is, but we are planning masks for 13-th because it's Mardi Gras (and watch me wave my Lenten cross around on Valentine's). overeating is hit or miss, though...
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HappyEverAfter 06:38 PM 01-31-2018
We will have cupcakes that day and I got each of them a Valentines Day book as a gift but that’s it.
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Cat Herder 10:51 AM 02-01-2018
Originally Posted by Mad_Pistachio:
I have no idea what Kingscake is, but we are planning masks for 13-th because it's Mardi Gras (and watch me wave my Lenten cross around on Valentine's). overeating is hit or miss, though...
Sorry. I have family originating in both Mobile (first to celebrate mardi gras in 1703, USA) and New Orleans (more famous parades). They take it a bit seriously. I also close for Jubilee. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Bay_jubilee

The King Cake tradition is thought to have been brought to New Orleans from France in 1870. A King Cake is an oval-shaped bakery delicacy, crossed between a coffee cake and a French pastry that is as rich in history as it is in flavor. It's decorated in royal colors of PURPLE which signifies "Justice," GREEN for "Faith," and GOLD for "Power." These colors were chosen to resemble a jeweled crown honoring the Wise Men who visited the Christ Child on Epiphany. In the past such things as coins, beans, pecans, or peas were also hidden in each King Cake.

Today, a tiny plastic baby is the common prize. At a party, the King Cake is sliced and served. Each person looks to see if their piece contains the "baby." If so, then that person is named "King" for a day and bound by custom to host the next party and provide the King Cake.

Mardi Gras Day has a moveable date and may occur on any Tuesday from February 3rd to March 9th. It is always the day before Ash Wednesday, and always falls 46 days before Easter.



https://www.randazzokingcake.com/pag...ing-Cakes.html
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BrynleeJean 12:15 PM 02-01-2018
I never do a party, the kids don't exchange valentines, maybe make cards for each other that day during free art but nothing big. I do pretty much always get pink red and white balloons and we play with those for like an hour in the morning and the afternoon because its usually still super cold here where we live.
I may also do a parent gift, i think last year i made a bookmark? or the salt dough thumb print keychains?
and ill send the kids home with a little goodie bag of stickers and pencils and stamps (dollar store stuff) themed for the occasion.
If I'm feeling super into it and RISKY we ill go those YUMMMMY sugar cookies with the icing on top that just melt in your mouth! only if I'm asking for trouble that afternoon
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Sunchimes 04:15 AM 02-05-2018
" YUMMMMY sugar cookies with the icing on top that just melt in your mouth!"

I am so unimpressed with my sugar cookie recipe and too lazy to look for others. Would you share the recipe?

I haven't decided if I am doing a parent gift. One minute, we are doing something for parents, siblings, grandparents, etc. The next, I decide not to do gifts at all. I will only have 2 kids that day, and one is just 15 months old. Depending on the 3 year olds level of enthusiasm that day, we will either pack the day with activities, or just chill all day and mostly ignore it.
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Blackcat31 07:55 AM 02-05-2018
I don't do anything for this holiday...

I just don't view it as something that includes daycare....

If parents want to show their to their child, they can certainly do so...but I don't "celebrate" this holiday within our curriculum.

I've always thought of this particular holidays as an "adult" holiday.
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daycarediva 09:44 AM 02-05-2018
We celebrate it.

No clue what we are doing yet though....
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LysesKids 11:12 AM 02-05-2018
Originally Posted by Mad_Pistachio:
13-th is Mardi Gras. Try looking into masks and over-eating sissy pink hearts are so last century...
Yes indeed - Mardi Gras; already have the King Cake lol, masks, beads etc; I do it yearly. My oldest DD's birthday is the 14 & I send a dozen purple roses (it's a family thing that all the women do). My childcare kids are babes - they won't worry about it being they partied the day before lol
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LysesKids 11:16 AM 02-05-2018
Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
But Kingscake is too hard to make with daycare kids, plus the plastic babies inside are kinda freaky in the wrong context. I don't want to hold that conference.

https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/mi...1-c46abe1fc7d5 - I take that back, just found an easy one.
I do the King Cake without the babe just because my babes are little ( I actually order it from NOLA)...I stick it one of the pieces I send home with the parents lol; Let them have the fun
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storybookending 11:37 AM 02-05-2018
I don’t really celebrate most holidays with the daycare kiddos. They might get a Valentine’s Day snack this year. I didn’t do anything last year. I make the parents the same refrigerator magnet keepsake every Valentine’s Day but the kids don’t really help other than posing for the picture that I use for the magnet. Last year they all brought each other a little treat. I kept them on the counter and sent them home. They didn’t open them here.
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Cat Herder 02:46 PM 02-06-2018
Originally Posted by LysesKids:
I do the King Cake without the babe just because my babes are little ( I actually order it from NOLA)...I stick it one of the pieces I send home with the parents lol; Let them have the fun
Unsuspecting.
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lovemykidstoo 11:07 AM 02-11-2018
Originally Posted by storybookending:
I don’t really celebrate most holidays with the daycare kiddos. They might get a Valentine’s Day snack this year. I didn’t do anything last year. I make the parents the same refrigerator magnet keepsake every Valentine’s Day but the kids don’t really help other than posing for the picture that I use for the magnet. Last year they all brought each other a little treat. I kept them on the counter and sent them home. They didn’t open them here.
Can you tell me more about your refrigerator magnet craft?
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mamamanda 12:53 PM 02-11-2018
Do you have a private Facebook page for your parents? I do a Valentine's photo shoot each year. It's always fun. I ask the parents to dress their kids in something red/white/pinkish, etc & I create a very simple prop booth with items around my house. The kids have fun posing & being silly in the "set" I create. One year I printed them off for parents but I found it was easier to just upload them to the private page & parents can print them off themselves. My parents all love it & I enjoy it too or I wouldn't bother.
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storybookending 08:06 PM 02-11-2018
Originally Posted by lovemykidstoo:
Can you tell me more about your refrigerator magnet craft?
I take a photo of the kids sitting on the floor with a paper heart I made when I niece was a baby hanging behind them. The paper heart says “Happy Valentine’s Day” on it. I print the photos out and glue it to thicker pink project paper leaving a little less than a centimeter for a border around all sides of the photo and then I stick heart shaped foam stickers around the edge. I found the form heart stickers at Target mixed in with the other valentines stuff. They come in a little cylinder shaped container and are $5. I think the brand name is Spritz but I can check tomorrow if anyone wants to know. Then I just glue a magnet on the back. I usually end up just cutting up last years football schedule magnet into strips if anyone knows what I’m talking about when I say that. I do the same project every year so this will be my third year. I am not sure about my other daycare kids but my SIL has both years magnets hanging on her fridge and I’m excited to see this third one next to them. It’s so cute to see how much they’ve grown in a year. I can PM you a picture if you are having trouble visualizing. I print the as 4x6s which gets a little large and I wish I had made them smaller when I started but I don’t want them to not match now haha.
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hwichlaz 08:44 AM 02-12-2018
My curric kit comes with a monthly holiday pack so we're using that. But that's it.
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lovemykidstoo 09:44 AM 02-12-2018
Originally Posted by storybookending:
I take a photo of the kids sitting on the floor with a paper heart I made when I niece was a baby hanging behind them. The paper heart says “Happy Valentine’s Day” on it. I print the photos out and glue it to thicker pink project paper leaving a little less than a centimeter for a border around all sides of the photo and then I stick heart shaped foam stickers around the edge. I found the form heart stickers at Target mixed in with the other valentines stuff. They come in a little cylinder shaped container and are $5. I think the brand name is Spritz but I can check tomorrow if anyone wants to know. Then I just glue a magnet on the back. I usually end up just cutting up last years football schedule magnet into strips if anyone knows what I’m talking about when I say that. I do the same project every year so this will be my third year. I am not sure about my other daycare kids but my SIL has both years magnets hanging on her fridge and I’m excited to see this third one next to them. It’s so cute to see how much they’ve grown in a year. I can PM you a picture if you are having trouble visualizing. I print the as 4x6s which gets a little large and I wish I had made them smaller when I started but I don’t want them to not match now haha.
That sounds really cute thank you!! I do the same thing to get my magnets lol
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CityGarden 10:14 AM 02-12-2018
We are doing a couple cute valentine's day crafts and I am giving all the kids a healthy valentine from me.
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Play Care 10:48 AM 02-12-2018
Doing a pajama day and card exchange but only because it's my light day (3 kids)
I think there was a provider who either worked at a center or for her own day care had a policy where they celebrated the seasons, but not actual holidays. I do wonder how they worded that. I should have borrowed that policy!
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Unregistered 01:22 PM 02-12-2018
Originally Posted by Josiegirl:
What are you all doing? I want to keep it simple. No exchanging cards because it's chaotic, the kids don't care and it's just extra work for dcps. Don't really want to decorate or have a party. Bleh, so not into it right now.
Maybe I'll make some heart cookies and let the dcks decorate them. Any simple artsy craftsy ideas?
Thanks!
I plan on using cookie cutters to cut their snacks in heart shapes. I'm doing crackers and heart shaped cheese... Maybe heart shaped turkey. Simple yet different.

I try to spread out the holiday stuff to avoid chaos and burn out so today they cut out and baked cookies, tomorrow they will frost and sprinkle. (Only about an hour of time needed for each task)Then they get a cookie on Valentine's day! We also painted and glittered a paper heart shape for their parents last week and are waiting until Wednesday to give them.
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Meeko 01:43 PM 02-14-2018
We do a candy exchange for Valentines. The kids decorate bags and we share out the candy they each bring. But that's it. I personally loathe Valentines Day. I think it's the worst commercial "holiday" out there.

My husband and I talked about it long and hard many years ago and decided to stop all Valentine stuff between us. Our marriage is a 24/7 deal and we make an effort to say and do loving things every single day.

I love getting surprise gifts...just coz...at random times. Because he wants to, not because he feels obligated. My daughter and I went to Walmart for a few groceries last night and the store was full of frantic men in the card, jewelry, flower areas etc. It was crazy.

We have so many friends who stress every year on how to impress each other for valentines and then spend the rest of the year whining about each other...it's all so fake.

Chocolates and flowers on a certain day don't prove you love someone. It proves that Walmart will be richer this week!!!!
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Josiegirl 02:16 AM 02-15-2018
Yesterday turned out to be sunny, sort of warmish, so we spent as much time as we could outdoors. It was sooo much more needed than anything else yesterday. And they still got pink cupcakes for snack.
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storybookending 06:39 AM 02-15-2018
Originally Posted by Josiegirl:
Yesterday turned out to be sunny, sort of warmish, so we spent as much time as we could outdoors. It was sooo much more needed than anything else yesterday. And they still got pink cupcakes for snack.
First day above freezing here in a long time yesterday! We also enjoyed the outdoors. I had pink snack cakes for snack but one of my kids brought cookies to share and they were not getting both so guess who is eating all the pink snack cakes? This girl! Looks like above freezing for one more day here and then back to the cold. We are going to enjoy it! I am so ready for spring!
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Blackcat31 06:49 AM 02-15-2018
Originally Posted by storybookending:
First day above freezing here in a long time yesterday! We also enjoyed the outdoors. I had pink snack cakes for snack but one of my kids brought cookies to share and they were not getting both so guess who is eating all the pink snack cakes? This girl! Looks like above freezing for one more day here and then back to the cold. We are going to enjoy it! I am so ready for spring!
Strangely warm here too! I think it might have hit 40F above zero!! We spent a lot of time outdoors and loved it! I just wish more parents would support and encourage their kids to be more independent. I can get 12 kids under Kindy age dressed in full winter gear in less than 20 minutes but seriously when a 4.5 yr old just stands there holding their foot out for me to put their boot on for them I kinda cuss the parent out in my head... and wonder if they truly believe the Kindergarten teacher is going to do that for 28 kids every day....

All in all though it was warm and sunny so it was a good day! Slipping back down to single digits (maybe even a minus something) for evenings but seems the weather will stay in the single digits for a few more weeks anyways.

Come on Spring!!!
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Annalee 10:43 AM 02-15-2018
I had a few parents ask if grandparents could come by and give their grandchildren balloons and visit for a while. I said "only if they are picking up for the day"......no balloons were delivered
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Mom2Two 01:42 PM 02-15-2018
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
I've always thought of this particular holidays as an "adult" holiday.
It's that way in Australia. Two years ago I forgot that is strictly about romance there, and I posted Valentines messages on facebook to my sibs. The crickets were deafening in response. I think I kinda creeped them out.

Originally Posted by Josiegirl:
What are you all doing? I want to keep it simple. No exchanging cards because it's chaotic, the kids don't care and it's just extra work for dcps. Don't really want to decorate or have a party. Bleh, so not into it right now.
Maybe I'll make some heart cookies and let the dcks decorate them. Any simple artsy craftsy ideas?
Thanks!
We did card making, a heart pre-K math activity, and a heart lacing activity. I'm trying to improve my pre-K program, so I'm feeling all proud of myself for putting out for V Day activities.
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