Valentine’s can be a great time to remind kids about the importance of loving yourself, your family, and your friends. These calming Valentines activities for kids can give them the time to reflect on what makes them feel good, and how to spread kindness with those around them.
Related Post: 11 Calming Easter Activities {Including Free Bunny Breaths Printable + More}
In our house Valentines is low key but it’s a great time to practice self love and spread a little kindness. My little boy enjoys doing calming activities that build self confidence, but he especial loves and gets excited about the art and craft projects!
It’s important to remember that love comes in many forms including self love and it can be expressed through hugs, kind words, and acts of service, as well as through gifts and cards. This list of calming valentines activities will give your kids of different ways of practicing self love and opportunities to growth their strengths of being caring and kind.
{ 9 Calming Valentines Activities for Kids}
1. Smell the Flowers
Activity: Flower Breaths
This beautiful breathing exercise encourages children to learn that just like a flower that they are unique and will bloom in their own time. Children will use their imaginations to find a colourful, scented flower and use their breath to take in the sweet smell and gently blow the petals. Read More Here – Flower Breaths Help Kids Bloom
I love these flower soft toys to practice on, which would also make a cute Valentines gift for kids.
2. Celebrate with Hugs
Activity: Squishy self hugs for kids are a great calming activity and easy to practice. Once kids have learnt how to self hug they have a calming strategy to help them to feel safe and relaxed, Valentines would be a great time to introduce this activity. Read More Here: Squishy Self Hugs for Kids
Make a Self Hug Card – This is such a fun, simple craft. Ask kids to stretch out and measure the lengths of their hugging arms with wool. Then get them to draw around each hand. Depending on how old, they can then cut out their hand shapes and decorate them.
Finally, stick the hand shapes, one at each end of the string with tape and there you have a self hug. Here’s my sons hug, he made me a card with it! So cute.
Also we love the Hugless Douglas books!
3. Make a Valentines Den and Relax
Activity: Create a cosy love den, then relax and listen to one of my free guided relaxations for kids on Insight Timer! Read more here: How to Build a Relaxing Den
Why not add some Valentines decorations to make your den extra lovely! I love these:
- These cute Heart Lights
- These relaxing Heart Crystals
- Oh Yes! This flamingo pink Heart Lamp
- and finally this amazing fluffy Rainbow Blanket
4. Make an Affirmation Heart
Activity: Make a special affirmation Valentine’s heart that celebrates self-love.
- Cut out a heart shape from paper and decorate. You make like to pop on the Snoop Dogg Affirmation Song to inspire you and learn about affirmations.
- On the heart, ask children to write a simple affirmation: “Be kind to yourself today and every day!” Here some guidance on using affirmations with kids.
- Display your affirmation heart somewhere you can all see and practice repeating the positive words as a family!
- You could also make a collage of positive affirmations. On the collage ask kids to write a personal message about why you think self-love is so important. 26 Strengths Based Affirmations and Activities for Kids
5. Take a Heart Breath
Activity: Heart breath is a simple and effective way to bring more peacefulness, calm, and focus into your kids Valentines day. Read More: Heart Breaths for Kids
- To practice heart breath with your kids, have them sit comfortably in a chair or on the floor with their spine straight.
- Invite them to close their eyes and bring their awareness to the area of their heart.
- Ask them to take a few deep breaths, inhaling through their nose and exhaling through their mouth.
- As they do this, invite them to imagine a beautiful light radiating from their heart to the tips of their toes and their fingertips.
- After a few minutes, ask them to open their eyes and take a few moments to share about their experience.
6. Have a Valentines Pizza Party
Activity: Bake a Heart Shaped or Pink Pizza
Use our very easy Kids Pizza Dough + Free Recipe Cards and simply add either some pink food colouring to the dough or shape the dough into a heart to create a fun valentines pizza. Add is a Pizza Breath and enjoy a spending quality time together!
7. Gratitude Valentines Cards
Children always love to make cards for their friends and family. How about making gratitude cards together?
- First, have Children think of three reasons why they are grateful for their Valentine and then write them down on the card. I love you because……
- Then decorate the cards with markers, Valentines stickers and paint! Try a Square Breathing Gratitude breath with kids too.
Our printable Valentines cards an easy way for children to practice their skill of kindness by sharing kind words and a card with others. They will also learn a mindful breathing exercise that they can share with the recipient of the card.
8. Create a Calm Heart
Activity: Making a simple Calm Heart can inspire and teach your child how to take a mindful breath and become aware of the things that they love about themselves. This
Find some printable paperchains to decorate in my Free Resource Library
9. Drink a Valentines Milkshake
Activity: A mindful drinking activity to share with the ones you love!
Overview: Mindful drinking can be a great way to teach children about slowing down and being in the moment. Take this opportunity to make a date and a drink together, then sit down, enjoy the company and savour the moment.
- Invite your child to close their eyes and focus on their breathing for a few moments before beginning the activity. Try a Hot Chocolate Breath.
- Then make a Valentines milkshake together. Use strawberries, milk, cream, sprinkles and sauce. Finish with two straws to share! These Valentines straws are awesome!
- Encourage the children to take their time whilst making and drinking their milkshake. Ask them to notice the flavours, smells, colours, sounds and textures of the drink as they enjoy it.
- After you’ve finished, ask the children to discuss what they noticed during the activity. This can help them become aware of how their bodies and minds react to different drinks and foods, but also to notice what its like to slow down and be present.
I hope you enjoy this list of calming valentines activities for kids and try out some with your kids. The beauty of all these activities is that with just a little tweak we can add these exercises into our family Valentines traditions. Take Care Emma x
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