Yesterday we had our First Friday homeschool group meeting at our house.
Valentine wreath with Christmas tree - photo by Josiah (I think this shot is so pretty!)
With St. Valentine's Day just around the corner, our theme was all things Valentine.
Heart garland - made just like the Christmas garland seen here.
We enjoyed heart shaped cookies along with scones, buns and other teatime treats, and then it was time for crafting.
Cookie hearts and shadow hearts - photo by Josiah
We had four families altogether with a total of twenty-seven children. I just love seeing my kitchen full of delightful children working happily together!
First they made Valentines to send. I told them St. Valentine's Day is a wonderful opportunity to send greetings to our family and friends to let them know how much we love them, but we can also give our missives eternal value by including a spiritual bouquet for the recipient's intentions.
I had lots of cards pre-cut and scored, and just provided the usual array of stickers, markers, colored card stock, old garden catalogs, glue sticks, fancy scissors and the like. I printed out the spiritual bouquet blanks so they were ready to glue inside the children's cards:
I've included the forms here for download to save time if you are crafting with a crowd or just for your own family's regiment of grandparents, godparents and all. Download A Spiritual Bouquet for You
I also printed out hearts with 'Happy St. Valentine's Day' for the littlest crafters who can't yet write to use. You can download those as well - simple stuff but if I can save a few moms some minutes of computer time I'm happy to share! Download Valentine Hearts
For our other craft we made these hearts:
We used the following supplies: five inch wooden heart cutouts, an assortment of scrapbooking papers, small wood punch out shapes, ribbon, glue, and paint. I put out a few colors of acrylic paints that coordinated with the papers, and since the wood punchouts are small we just used paper plate palettes and Q-tip brushes for easy (disposable!) cleanup. I prepared print outs of St. Augustine's famous quote, 'You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you,' seen here: Download Augustine Hearts
We talked about how these words tell us that we can only find peace in life resting in the Lord and His will, as we were created to know, love and serve Him. Most people celebrate Valentine's Day as a secular holiday, but all of those red hearts that we see all over the stores and decorations everywhere can serve to make us think of St. Augustine and the peace he knew when he finally came to belief in Christ.
Simply trace the heart onto decorative paper and cut it out.
Cover the wooden heart with a thin layer of glue and add a ribbon loop for hanging before pressing the paper heart on top.
Then just decorate the front as desired, with more paper, ribbon and the painted wooden shapes as desired.
You can see some of the variety here, and how most of the boys naturally skipped the fancy paper part. :-)
I think the hearts turned out very pretty, and they make a cheery and meaningful decoration to have around the house. Mary Rose has made several more of them with the extra supplies, intending to share them as gifts.
