Valentines Day

Boy oh Boy...Valentines Day at Beacon House! What fun!
While I miss my kids and my hubby beyond words...it was a delight to have Valentines Day at Beacon House.
Early in the morning I told the kids that when I got back from the Embassy I would have a Valentines Day Party.
At 3:00 I got the classroom ready with the Valentine card I had bought for the kids to prepare. Amanda had sent along a nice supply of bags and candy for them as well.
(it was a hit...thanks Amanda)
The question remains...how do you teach children about Valentines Day when they have not celebrated it before?
I started by gathering them in the class room and we talked through the song
"The More We Get Together, the Happier We'll be, because your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends"
Friendship is how I went about it.
Each child signed the "to" with "to my friend" and the "from" with their name.
Then we put them into a large bowl and each one got to pick one out and receive a packet of conversational hearts and some red, pink and white Jelly beans!
One of the Valentine Cards was a card with an empty face on one side and the stickers of a "nose, eyes, sungalsses, ears etc" to build a face.


They laughted, ate candy, sang the song with the hand motions and it was good.
At one point in the party...they were all a bit confused...I found myself with 14 kids at my feet, pulling on my dress...."mum, please mum, mum can you help me"
what seemed like 5 mins of craziness calmed down and I was able to get them to all sit down and we started over...slower this time.
They laughed at me because I showed them what it sounds like to me when all 27 of them are saying "mum, mum, help please mum" Yeee Haw!
After filling them with sugar, seeing smiles on their faces, and wiping sweat off of EVERY inch of me...the party was done!
One Happy Valentine's Day on the books for Beacon House!