Kids everywhere love Valentine’s Day! The candy, fun and excitement of telling others how much they love and care for them, and the feeling of being special are enough to mesmerize any young child. There are a number of Valentine’s Day gifts for kids that make great ideas for the occasions. These gifts may be given to a kid, or kids may exchange these gifts. If you are in the market for great Valentine’s Day gifts for kids, you have come to the right place! Keep reading for wonderful ideas!
Valentine’s Day Crayons
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Every kid loves crayons! Parents everywhere can associate with me when I speak of those little stubs and pieces of crayons that kids tend to collect. Crayons may become worn down, or broken. Most kids prefer whole crayons that are in one piece rather than one crayon that are broken down into many different pieces. However, they seem to love to hold on to those little pieces. Why not encourage them to do something really creative this Valentine’s Day? Have them create Valentine’s Day Crayons that they can give their friends.
For this gift idea, you will need a cookie sheet, or mold, that has designs that reflect hearts. Next, you will simply gather all those little stubby crayons and arrange them within each section of the mold. Many would melt the crayons down beforehand, but what fun would that be? Just how festive would the colors be? Not very much fun or festive! Your child can help arrange the colors in a certain way. One may choose to outline the outer part with red crayon pieces and the inside with pink crayon pieces. Another child may choose to go for the rainbow effect and just make it with no design and all kinds of colors!
Next, you will want to place the pan in the oven and bake for about fifteen to twenty minutes. You will want to ensure that the crayons are melted completely prior to removing them from the oven. Once this achieved, take the cookie mold pan out of the oven and allow it to completely cool. This may take a couple of hours. During this time, you may want to assist your child in creating some homemade Valentine’s Day cards. Once the sheet has cooled, the Valentine’s Day Crayons should fall easily from the pan. You should then take some red or pink yarn and a yarn needle. Run this through the Valentine’s Day Card and then through the top corner of the heart! Now, your kid can give these crayons and cards to their friends, classmates, and relatives!
Valentine’s Day DVD Cards
If you want to create a special Valentine’s Day Gift for your kid, or you want to help your child create a great gift for another, you may want to create a Valentine’s Day DVD Card! In order to do this, you will need to come up with some pictures that you can scan on your computer. If you are a parent, you may want to choose pictures that show great moments with your kids. If you are helping your child create one for a friend or relative, help them locate pictures that display special moments between them.
Once you have scanned and saved the pictures on your computer, you will want to find a song online that is special to show the receiver how much you mean to them. You can choose from fun and exciting songs like:
“Be My Valentine” by Jack Hartmann
“V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E” by Ron Brown
You can purchase the downloaded versions of these songs at “Songs for Teaching” at http://www.songsforteaching.com/holiday/valentinesdaysongs.htm .
Once you have a song, you can simply open up “Windows Movie Maker” on most versions of Microsoft Windows and open the file where the pictures are located to add them. Once this is completed, you can add the music you have chosen in the “audio” section. A number of special effects, title options, and credits can be chosen. You can then get a blank DVD case and design a cute little Valentine’s Day card as the cover.
This is a personalized Valentine’s Day gift for a kid that will be cherished for many, many years! This also makes a great Valentine’s Day gift for adults as well!
As you can see, there are many creative and great Valentine’s Day gifts for kids that can be made from the comfort of your home. The gift choices mentioned here will be more valuable to the child that receives them than candy, stuffed animals, or standard store bought gifts, and can be enjoyed for a long time!
What are easy handmade Valentine’s Day gifts kids can make?
Two that kids genuinely enjoy making: heart-shaped crayons (arrange broken crayon stubs in a heart-shaped cookie mold and bake until melted — the color combinations are half the fun) and a DVD memory card (scan special photos, add a meaningful song in a free program like Windows Movie Maker, and burn the video onto a blank disc with a homemade card as the cover). Both are personal, take a few hours, and will be treasured far longer than store-bought candy.
How do you make heart-shaped crayons for Valentine’s Day?
Gather all those broken and stubby crayons your child has been holding onto. Let them arrange the pieces by color — maybe red on the outside, pink in the middle — inside each section of a heart-shaped cookie mold or silicone mold. Place the pan in a 350-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the crayons are fully melted. Remove and let cool completely (a couple of hours). Once cool, the shaped crayons pop right out of the mold and can be tied to a handmade Valentine card with a length of red or pink yarn.
What does a child need to make a Valentine’s Day memory DVD?
You need a computer with Windows Movie Maker installed, a scanner or printer combo, the family photo albums, a song saved on the computer, a DVD burner, and a blank recordable DVD disc. Scan and save 50 to 100 meaningful photos into a folder, drag them into Movie Maker, add the music and any titles or captions, then save as a video file and burn to disc. Design a little Valentine card as the DVD case cover to finish it off.
Why are homemade Valentine gifts often more meaningful than store-bought ones?
They carry the time, thought, and personal choice of the giver in a way that something pulled off a shelf simply cannot match. A heart-shaped crayon your child assembled color by color, or a DVD your child helped sort photos for, shows the recipient they were truly seen. As the article puts it, a personalized gift will be cherished for many years — long after the chocolate is gone.
Great ideas!
Thanks for contributing this post to this week’s edition of the Carnival of Family Life, hosted at Confessions of a Novice. The Carnival will be live on Monday, January 28, 2008, so be sure to stop by and check out all of this week’s excellent submissions!