Easy Valentine Box

All of us parents are scrabling to come up with a Valentine Box this weekend. 
My child just did a diorama (?) depicting bears in their natural habitat with my very last shoe box. 

Now what?  I'm not buying a pair of shoes just for the box.  That is just plain silly. 

So what am I to do?  Naturally, I look in the trash and recycling bins. 
What I DO have are these great plastic grape boxes from Costco.

 Take some strips of tissue paper and apply elmers glue with a brush to the interior of the box.  The tissue paper will go on easily, just brush it flat.  Don't worry about using too much glue, the white will fade as the glue dries.

 Then the fun part: use little squares of tissue wrapped over the end of a pencil, dip them  in hot glue and then apply the frilly design to the outside of the box.  The hot glue is super child resistant, and the glue sticks instantly.  Please don't let the kids use hot glue-this is the parent part. (They can stick the poofs-you work the gun). 

Ah, the traslucence of the tissue paper and the frill of the poof makes the perfect valentine box.

Have a sweet day!

Happy Valentines Day with Nice Notes

My older kids, grades 3 and 4, did not have the traditional Valentine's day celebrations at school this year. Sure, they made ice cream sundae's and had punch, but they exchanged "Nice Notes" instead if the traditional Valentines. Every child in class had to write a letter to every other kid, and the letter had to mention at least 2 compliments or qualities that my child found admirable.

The kids are becoming less intimidated by writing a letter, they are practicing their cursive writing, and they are learning the life lesson that even though not everyone is your favorite, everyone DOES have good qualities, (even if you have to look very hard.)

As a result, my son and daughter have a fist full of compliments from their peers, classmates and friends. I know that they will read and re-read them for a long time. What a great idea.