A Homeschool Valentine's Day Party

Friday was the third year in a row that our local homeschool group has had a Valentine's Day party. Before that we spent a couple of years having a Valentine's Day celebration at an assisted living facility.  Valentine's Day is one of those celebrations that can be so much fun for children and do not have to take a lot of money or a huge effort.  You do not need to have a big group either.  If you have a small homeschool group, get together with one or two families, or just do something on your own, Valentine's Day can still be special for your children.

One of the things our group has done is to have each child bring a box for valentines.  Many of the children make a box, but others have bought them, or even brought just a pretty bag or decorated pencil box that they already have at home.  You can make some really cool boxes with little to no out of pocket expenses using supplies you have around the house.

These are the boxes my crew made this year.

Alex made an alien using a box, construction paper googly eyes, pom poms, and pipe cleaners. (Last year Alex didn't make a box because he thought he was too old for valentines, but then he didn't get any candy either, so he decided to make one this year. Nick (13) didn't make box.)

Anthony made a pirate ship using a box, construction paper, and brown paint (I spent $2.37 on the paint since we were almost out of brown)

Christian made The Flying Dutchman out of a box, paper towel roll, and construction paper.

Lily made a minion.  We used a shoe box, 2 rolls of gold duct tape ($4) (they didn't have yellow and she thought the gold was prettier than yellow anyway), painter's tape, electrical tape, pipe cleaner, and construction paper.

 Emelia wanted an ice castle.  Two years ago Lily made a regular castle so I had an idea of how to make a castle and we just decorated it with Frozen decor.  We used a cereal box, teddy graham box, wrapping paper roll, blue wrapping paper ($2), cardboard, foil, construction paper, foam snowflakes (I had these leftover from a Christmas craft), and some glittery shaving cream "paint."  We put some Frozen figures on top of the castle that we already had.

Valentines can be made or bought for as little as .98 a box.  If you buy them the day after Valentine's day for next year, you can get them half price :)  My children think it is so fun passing out their cards!

Our group has done potluck lunch, pizza lunch that everyone has chipped in for, or just had everyone bring a sack lunch from home.  I think the potluck is probably my favorite but this year they decided everyone should just bring a sack lunch.  I got the children Lunchables and Capri Suns, and made enough cupcakes for all of the children coming to the party.  I just did white cake mix and colored the icing pink, nothing fancy.

Some game ideas we have played in the past include Bingo and a cake walk.  This year we played a fun simple game called Cupid's Arrow.  A table was set up with a red table cloth.  Each child was given a straw and 3 q tips.  They put the q tip in the straw and tried to blow the q tip into a heart shaped cake pan.  They each got a Hershey Kiss for playing.  They loved the game!

Emmie didn't play but she liked helping to clean up the q tips that missed the pan.

The game was their favorite part of the party, besides of course looking at all of their cards and eating some candy!

Happy Homeschooling!