Ugh! Valentine cards for school!

[mom2binsd]

So DD is 4 1/2 doesn't love writing that much yet, and of course we picked these small hologram pet cards, the back is glossy so it's so hard to find the something to write with, plus the cards are so small!!! At least she only has to sign her name Maddie, but times like these I wish she was named Al! What will will do next year in K when there are 25 cards to do!!!!!!! Guess we should have started a few days ago....is it too early for wine???

[LD92599]

I wrote out the first names during lunch today and DS is now writing his name to them! There's quite a few though - i did get the mailed ones (family, etc) done last night w/ him!

[mom2binsd]

Thankfully we only had to do her name not her classmates name, you'd think I was a moron but I just find sitting with DD and watching her completely not concentrate drives me crazy....broke it up into smaller groups of cards to do....but I just wanted it done....I've worked with children with severe disabilities and patients with severe head injuries I guess I need more patience with my own child!

Seeing my own shortcoming as a parent makes me feel like I need to step back and relax and take more time to really focus on my children and not worry so much about other things...like this addictive board!!!!!!

And yes, I poured myself a glass of wine and all is well!

[kss611]

DD is now in kindergarten and it took her about 5 minutes to do all 20 cards for her class today. While she was doing them, I remembered the torture of doing them with her last year. It took her about an hour to do 15 cards last year which nearly sent me over the edge. Now one year later, I see such a big difference and realize how quickly she is growing up. I wonder when I am getting frustrated with her trying to teach her to drive a car, if I will long for the times when I painstakingly watched her sign her preschool Valentine's cards.

[overcome]

Mark your calendar for next year to do five a night the week before (is that really anal of me?? cause that is something I would DEF. do).

At that age (actually at any age), I think it is perfectly fine to print up labels with the kids names on them and have your child affix them to the valentine.

Even though they are not writing them, it is a rich literacy experience as they are looking at beginning and ending letter/sounds, how some names are similar/different, the length of names, etc.

And BTW, get yourself a Slick Writer marker ( I think the company that manufactures them is American Crafts) at AC Moore, Michael's or similar store. They are made for writing on slick surfaces...dry instantly and won't smudge.

:-)

[jenmcadams]

We just finished ours -- it only took about 15 minutes for her to sign all 24 of them -- she would have finshed faster if her two year old brother wasn't so "helpful". I have to say I was so happy that her K teacher asked that we did not address the individual valentines, just sign them. The only really big pain was I wish we had picked ones that came with envelopes. The ones she picked included a tattoo (which was a huge pain to get to fit in the silly little corner cut-out spots) and a sticker to close them after you fold them over. She would sign them, I'd do the tattoo and then we both did the stickers. At the end we stapled each of them to a small bag of skittles which was her only real requirement -- we had to include skittles :)

Anywho...her preschool didn't celebrate Holidays, but I could never have imagined getting her to write her name 10 times last year (much less 24)

[karin4]

My second grader has to make homemade ones for everyone in his class, and they each have to have an individualized personal message or compliment. Getting him started made us both crazy-- nothing seemed special enough for him, and he couldn't figure out what to do. Once we hit on a formula, he rolled, more or less, but it's going to take about 3 hours spread out over a few days. My preschooler, thankfully, put together her 32 store-bought ones, sealed them with the heart sticker, and signed them, all in about 10 minutes. Yippee!

[spanannie]

Last year, DS was 4.5, and it took him over a week (we started early) and also had the teeny tiny cards, which were horrible, since they write so HUGE at that age. I wised up, this year, and bought much larger valentines with big envelopes, instead of seals. He's had no trouble with size this year. However, he was messing up when using marker, and I got sick of having him start over, so I switched him to pencil :-) He does fine on the writing, but will write the letters backwards, sometimes, so he'll want to start over. Now we can just erase. We started kind of late, so we've been doing 5/night. It's hard to get him to sit down to do those, rather than playing outside, but it's definitely going much faster than last year. He's still in Pre-K, so I can't imagine how efficient he'll be next year! Good luck! I feel your pain!

[C99]

Call me a St. Valentine's Grump, but we don't bother w/ St. V cards.

[Sugar Magnolia]

My first grade ds wanted to make home made cards after seeing some in a magazine. Holy Cow! It was a lot of work. Not to mention that he came home yesterday and told me his teachers wanted them a day early! Guess what dh and I did last night?

My preschooler is going to paint pictures and I am going to cut them into hearts. He can hardly write his name, so we will see how that goes!

[kransden]

We are in K this year. It took us about 45 minutes, and it was no big deal. There are 24 kids in her class (mostly with short names:) ). So don't dread next year. Last year we did it over a few days.

[KBecks]

It's not too early for wine (for you -- it is too early for her). We made our cards but Alek doesn't have to sign for his 2 year old class. He put stickers on and I finished up. Remember your wedding invitations and thank yous and this will be a piece of cake.

[egoldber]

In K last year, we did store bought ones and it was AWFUL. It took me about 4 days to get her to write the kids names and sign her name 18 times.

This year, she wanted to make them and there are 24 kids! But it only took us about an hour total! I helped her cut out hearts from pretty paper and she wrote a personal message (!!) on the back to each kid and signed her name. And then decided to make a really big one for her teacher.

So you never know. Last year at this time, writing was a huge chore for her. Now its pretty much second nature for her to write.

[nupe]

Foamies project
Last year we made our cards. I bought shiny red paper, and we used the foamies stickers from Michael's. Then I wrote out the names with a permanent marker. DS loved sticking on the foamies and picking color combos, etc.

Photoshop and picture of DS
This year I made the "cards" in photoshop with a picture of DS, and I am having them printed as photos with 2 fitting on a 4x6. We were told not to write out the names of the classmates, so I put To My Friend on the pics in photoshop.

ETA: We did not use envelopes either year.

[ha98ed14]

My second grader has to make homemade ones for everyone in his class, and they each have to have an individualized personal message or compliment.

Sorry, I just gotta ask, who made up this rule?

My DH teaches 4th grade and there are no rules at his school other than *if* a child brings valentines, they have to bring one for every child in the class. But the valentines themselves can be simple or elaborate, personal or store bought. Any other requirement assumes parents have the energy/time/money to invest when some just don't.

I think you got suckered by this rule-maker (teacher? principal?), unless this was something you wanted/ volunteered to do.