We have Valentines to give to friends at our Tuesday morning mom group and to L and JF' classmates. JF' friends will get the ones with the mustaches, everyone else will get the ones with the bubbles.
I do the cutting, hole punching, and other prep work and then let the kids glue.
It's not perfect, but I'm a firm believer that kids' projects should look like they were done by kids. And they should look that way because they were done by kids.
L looked at tons of pictures on Pinterest, but in the end she wanted to make a pretty basic mailbox, like the big blue ones in front of the post office.
She did all the taping and cutting and decorating with glitter glue and I supervised. She likes it and is proud of it. I'm proud of her and her creativity.
For our moms' group tomorrow I baked the cake below.
Valentine's Day seems like such a great day to talk about how God is Love and to discuss Jesus' Sacred Heart and Mary's Immaculate Heart.
I'll be honest here, when I talk to the kids about how much God loves them they don't really seem to get it. It makes me sad; it makes me feel like I'm failing in my most important job.
Hopefully though, silly cakes like this will just help me talk more about how much I love Jesus and Mary and how much they love me. Hopefully my kids will eventually love them too.
And, you know, it was fun baking and decorating it.
Awesome cake! I always enjoyed Valentine's Day parties at school. Seeing everyone's boxes was so much fun! My favorite box was one my mom made for me - she took an oatmeal container and made it into the prettiest carousel with unicorns!
ReplyDeleteLove the cake!
ReplyDeleteThat cake is awesome. I have that double heart pan, but haven't used it in years. I just might have to pull it out now. And I totally agree with you about having kids make their own projects. I just hope my kids' teachers all appreciate their effort!
ReplyDeleteI imagine God's love is hard to grasp for kids because it's (to them) intangible. I imagine all the blessings in their lives seem to come from their parents. Don't give up hope - just keep "stewing them in the crockpot", as my friend says - slow and steady affirmations and teachings day by day. I so wish I had grown up knowing about God's love - maybe it wouldn't be such a struggle to know it and remember it and trust in it today
ReplyDeleteYou’re such a good mom…and a crafty one at that :) Happy (early) Valentine’s Day!
ReplyDeleteThe mustache... AWESOME. Our Valentine's are red pieces of paper glued to white ones... pretty hard core. Great work!! You are the image of God for your children. As long as they understand a piece of your love for them, when the time comes, they will understand a piece of God's love from them. Geezze... Mom guilt is the worst eh?
ReplyDeleteSuch clever Valentine's! You are a fun mom!
ReplyDeleteThose cakes are amazing! What?!?! That's crazy! And lovely! And mail me a slice, okay?
ReplyDeleteYou are not a failure! Please dont be so hard on yourself - there are a lot of mommas who are inspired by you. ;-) Give yourself some credit!
Love the part about Teresa helping James! I pray that I will be blessed with children one day, too. They're such a gift.
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