Part of this is my own fault and perhaps I will learn my lesson for next year since every year we go through this. Preschoolers and “mandatory” class Valentines do NOT mix.
Every year we make our Valentines. I think it’s because I have good memories of doing this as a child with the pink and red paper and the little white lacy paper hearts that only come out in February.
As I browsed the Target aisles this year, I made a decision that THIS year we just buy our Valentines, sign them all and be done. It's not worth all the trouble for lacy paper. But because I must be some sort of masochist, I shook my head and thought: No, I’m not giving in to the commercialization of Valentine’s Day. We will make them again.
I bought a few extra stickers, some stamps and decided to use up my scrapbook paper I never use anymore. We started two weeks early to allow for margin of error or loss of interest.
Day 1: (Note--We have not done them every day.) The plan was to make all the class Valentine’s first THEN move on to everyone else. And that didn’t work because we made them for everyone except the people in their class.
Day 2: Focused a bit more on the class list. I made the suggestion that we come up with an idea and make them all the same. No one is creative enough (or has the energy to make) 14 different Valentines. Am I right? But no, Alex wanted to make one for each kid on his own.
Day 3: Anna is halfway done with hers. I gave her the list. She decorated them, wrote everyone’s name and signed her own. Alex has finished 2. Each one took about 15 minutes to complete. But they look good.
Day 4: Alex has completed 2 more (each one took 30 minutes) with lots of getting up and running around in between. Anna is almost done.
Day 5 & 6: Anna is done and moving on to other friends. Alex has completed 2 more (these took 30 minutes). There were tears, I yelled. It was super fun. He says to me: Mommy, it makes me mad when you yell at me about doing Valentines. So I agreed that he could just put one superhero sticker on each, write his name and call it good.
Day 7: Alex still has eight left before his party tomorrow. It’s going to be a very long night. He did finally agree that we should have designed one and made them all the same. Perhaps next year I will learn.
2.11.2009
I Do NOT Heart Valentine’s Day
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4 comments:
Oh creative, scrapbooking, crafty mom...
Great job !
we buy ours every year.
We go through the same thing every year. My girls are very crafty so they always want to make them. They are very gung-ho for about 1 hr and then not interested. We usually struggle to get the last few done the night before they are due. It does get easier though. Sarah is now in third grade and she made individual ones for everyone and they looked great and she didn't complain, not even once.
The key, which btw I have not mastered, is to plan ahead and start early. I don't mean morning rather than afternoon. I mean weeks rather than days. It's hard to be that forward thinking, at least for me, but it sure does help in the end.
Good for you. We started over a month early. Avery wrote "Happy Valentines Day Love Avery" on all of them, and decorated them all. She was done after 2 or 3 at a time, but she did it! I was sort of irritated that in her class (where she is the youngest), not even one kid wrote their own name!! I like to see something more personal, even if a fancy Ariel Valentine with some candy may look more tasty... Your Valentine would have been a favorite in my bag:)
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