Books & Flower Fun For Toddler Valentine Play
Earlier this week, #thebigone got to enjoy some Valentine’s Day reading and Mad Lib silliness with me, so now, it’s #thelittleone’s turn to get in on the fun! He is just barely 18 months old, so I knew I needed to create something fairly simple and open ended for him to successfully participate. I remembered that he and I had been strolling through the craft store a few weeks ago (one of my favorite places!), and he for the first time he really noticed the aisles of artificial flowers. Suddenly, from his seat in the cart, he started signing ‘please’ at me as he verbalized in his little toddler way ‘teeee!’ He was entirely convinced they were aisles of trees, and he became obsessed. I wheeled him slowly through the floral section and he whispered ‘ta, ta, ta, peeees!’ [‘touch, touch, touch, please!’ if you don’t speak toddler] until I finally just let him pick out a $0.99 purple Gerber daisy nearly as tall as he is.
I decided to build on that excitement with a flower activity for him, because honestly, what mama wouldn’t love to get flowers arranged by her very little one for Valentine’s Day? It’s the sweetest. I grabbed the majority of our supplies from our local dollar store, so this is an activity that will be affordable to execute at home.
You Will Need:
- Fake flowers. I chose pretty traditional Valentine’s colors for ours (pink, red, purple, white, and gold), but use whatever you prefer.
- Strong shears or wire cutters. Our flowers were in bunches and we needed to cut them apart. You can avoid cutting if you buy single flowers.
- Floral tape. Just to be on the safe side, I wrapped some of the ‘pokier’ wire ends of the cut flowers. I had floral tape on hand from an earlier project, so I used that, but I’m sure masking tape or washing tape would work just as well.
- Styrofoam. I used a cube I had on hand, that I carved down a bit to fit inside our container. You can avoid messy styrofoam dust if you plan ahead better than I do.
- Container. I found cute little plastic Valentine’s buckets in packs of 2 at our dollar store, and chose those. Any sort of plastic bucket or vase you want to use will work fine though.
I cut our flowers apart, and then wrapped a little bit of floral tape around the ends of the stems where the wire was sticking out a bit too much. Use the minimal amount of tape needed- if you overdo it with the tape, the stem edge will become pretty blunt, and will be trickier for little hands to stick into the foam. I used a plastic knife to carve down my foam block a bit, rounding the edges until I could wedge the foam into the bucket. Our foam fit quite snugly, and was not likely to come out easily. If your foam is not as snug, some hot glue on the bottom of the foam would help stabilize it in the bucket.
I laid out the flowers and bucket, and we let #thelittleone loose. He was thrilled to have so many ‘trees’ to play with, and spent several minutes just checking them out and showing them to his dad and I. We modeled how to stick the stems into the foam, and #thelittleone worked on the skill for quite a while. He doesn’t quite have the strength and coordination to complete it independently just yet, so his dad and I helped a bit with some hand over hand guidance. We’ll be able to pull this activity out over and over again in the future, so I expect that as his fine motor skills continue to develop, we will see him become more and more successful with this task.
When we were finished with our flower arranging (and my husband had proclaimed “Perfect! No need for me to buy a Valentine’s Day gift now!”), #thelittleone and I spent some time looking through some of our family’s favorite board books about Valentine’s Day and love. He was particularly fond of Bright Baby Touch and Feel Hugs and Kisses, mainly because he loves anything touch and feel or interactive right now. I’m sharing our top picks with you below, in case you’re hoping to add some festive options to your home library! (More books is always better! And they make great non-candy Valentine gifts for littles!)
The M&M’s Valentine BookUm, books and chocolate. Do I really need to say more?!
Romeo & Juliet: A BabyLit® Counting Primer (BabyLit Books)
A classic romance, but this version is all vibrant, graphic illustration, no tragedy. Perfect for little ones.
Llama Llama I Love You
Llama Llama is always the sweetest little guy, especially when he’s making a Valentine for Mama Llama.
Bright Baby Touch and Feel Hugs and Kisses
Touch and feel books are a huge hit at our house. This one has large, clear illustrations, making it great for practicing new words or signs.
Max’s Valentine (Max and Ruby)
We love these bunny siblings who never seem to have parents around. (Seriously. Where are they?!) Their Valentine making is sweet and silly.
My Sweet Little Megabyte
Perfect for the toddler whose parents are programmers or bloggers… Fun 8-bit style graphics and techy puns fill the pages.
10 Valentine Friends
One of a series of similar holiday-themed counting books. Adorable, quirky characters with tons of personality on each page.
Love is You & Me.I purchased this for #thebigone’s first Valentine’s Day, when I was a single mom and he was my only Valentine. It’s a sweet little ode to your someone special.
What kind of Valentine’s fun do you have planned for your kids this year? Let me know in the comments!
There are so many great ideas for Valentine’s Day out there. Check some out right here!
Looking for more book ideas to build a home library for your family? I’ve got you covered!
asilletto
These are fantastic book pics! I’m a sucker for Llama Llama!
Kate
We’re big Anna Dewdney fans over here too!
juliemccullough
Llama Llama I Love You is one of my favorites.
Kate
It’s so sweet, we love it too.
The Accidental Mrs.
These crafts are SO stinking cute!!!
Kate
Thank you so much!
Jasmine - LoveLifeLaughMotherhood
I cant wait to try this with my son! he already plays with some of the faux flowers I have as decorations around the house
Kate
Toddlers love fake flowers, so this is a great way to let them play, instead of just saying ‘don’t touch that!’ Hope you guys have fun!
Alicia Knust
I just love reading books and making them come alive for my toddler! Good Job mama and great ideas!!
Kate
Thank you so much for checking them out, Alicia!
Krysten
My little man is almost 18 months old, I think he would enjoy this activity a lot. He loves posting and putting things into things! What a wonderful way to spend Valentine’s Day!
Kate
Mine loves to ‘fill and spill’ too! I hope you guys enjoy!
gloriousmomblog
It’s so great you found a craft to do with your toddler! My third loves crafts, but mommy doesn’t always find the time to do it with him ?
Kate
Oh gosh, I know how that is! Some weeks we get lots of crafts accomplished, other weeks not as much. Mom life, right?!
The Cool Mom
So may great books listed here! We love the llama llama books. P.s How cute is that little flower bouquet?!
Kate
Thank you so much- he did a great job putting the flowers together!
babiestobookworms
This is so fun! I will have to set this up for my daughter to play with! I love that you included the Llama Llama book since we are big fans. We have the Pride and Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility primer books like that, but I will have to check out the Romeo and Juliet one!
Kate
We have Pride & Prejudice too! And The Jungle Book. (I may have a small book buying problem. Yikes!)
twoboysonepup
So cute! Love all the books too. I want to check out the llama books! I’ve read them to other kiddos, but haven’t gotten them for my own!
Kate
All of Anna Dewdney’s book are some of our favorites. She was such a talented lady.
Charissa | thenotsobusymom
Sweet activity and books! I usually make a simple, special breakfast for the kids placed on cute V day plates. I give them each a small gift and leave it at their place at the table.
Kate
That is such a sweet way to celebrate, Charissa! I’m not much of a cook if it doesn’t come out of my crockpot, but I could probably handle taking them out for donuts with pink sprinkles, haha!
KIm
Love that little bouquet! My 3 year old would LOVE that. Thanks for sharing and for the great book ideas too!
Kate
Thanks so much for taking a look, Kim!
Meredith from Mommy in Leggings
Board books are my absolute favorite right now! I love that they can be chewing on and not rip (#hello9monthsold). That M&Ms one looks like it will be perfect for us next year! The books look awesome too…my mom got us a halloween board book that I just donated to goodwill because it was SO WEIRD. I’m always looking for normal fun and cute kids books! (sounds strange but I’m sure you know what I mean…these strange kids books with weird words or messages and you’re like wait, what?!)
Kate
My little actually started to eat a few of his board books- but only the ones he really, really likes… You can tell his favorites because they’ve been chewed up when his dad let him take them in his crib! We definitely have had some books we immediately passed on because they just weren’t for us. It’s disppointing!
Chelsea
Those books look great! Been trying to help my 3 yo understand Valentine’s Day.
Chelsea || http://www.binkiesandbaubles.com
Kate
There are tons of great options out there! Hope you enjoy whatever books you choose.
Leah
What’s a great idea!! I have the book Love is You & Me…it’s so cute!
Kate
Thank you! And I agree, the book is adorable!
onepeainthepod
So cute! My son loves the Bright Baby books but we don’t have that one!
Kate
I bought a ton of them for my oldest when he was little, and they held up really well, so the little one inherited them. We love them!
budgetmums
My son loves a good game of hide and seek, so last year I wrote little notes with things I love about him on brightly coloured post-its and popped them around the house for him to find. When he was done I stapled them together for him to keep as a little book full of all the special things about him ? Not quite sure how I’m going to top that this year!
Kate
Oh my gosh, that is the sweetest idea! Maybe I will steal that idea from you and do it for my 6 year old this year!
nbanuelosblog
What fun activities to do with kids! My daughter would love that M&M book and would probably lose her mind from being so excited about it. lol
Kate
Hahaha, we can only read it once, or it will be total m&m overload! Thanks for stopping by Nicole!
Stephanie Lowry
That flower pot craft is so cute! I have to do this with my kids, they’d love it! And it’d make the perfect gift for their grandparents ? I’m also really excited I stumbled across this post because I was so lost searching for Valentine’s related books for my kids, I always sneak a book in with every present.
Kate
We always include books too, it’s such a good way to build a home library a little at a time. Thanks for checking out the post!
Jalisa Marie
These are the cutest. I’m always on the hunt for books for my son. He loves books no matter what they are.
Kate
My kiddos are the same way with books!
mummamorrison
What great ideas for toddlers! I’ll have to keep these in mind for my boy next year (when he’s a toddler!). I love the flowers in the bucket, especially in the foam to keep it in! And my fav books are the m&m’s one (because – chocolate!) and the megabytes one! Showing that to my sister!
Thanks heaps for linking-up, can’t wait to see another amazing post next week ?
Kate
Thanks so much! My little one loved it, and I hope yours will too next year! Thanks for hosting the link up, I am hoping to remember it next week! (Mom brain!)
projectlifewellness
Oh my gosh how cute are those flower pots?! loving the books too! I didnt realize they had so many Valentines Day books for kids! thanks so much for sharing these ideas. I’m sure when my Son goes to school I’ll have to think of creative things for him to take with him for holidays/events like these<3.
Kate
There are so many Valentine books out there, it’s honestly kind of crazy! Thanks for checking out the post!
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