You are: Conflicted. You want a gift that they'll love, that'll show you that you love them...but, Christmas was less than two months ago, and you don't want to spoil them with a lot more stuff.
Valentine's Day presents tend to be more of an adult thing--jewelry, fancy boxes of chocolates, cologne, these are grown up presents. Kids usually just get a bag of paper valentines from their classmates, and maybe a card or something small from their parents. And that's okay! Little kids are simple creatures, gift-wise. Hand them an adorable stuffed animal or a bag of candy, they're usually pretty satisfied.
But if you want to step it up this year, we have some ideas for gifts they will love and remember for years to come...and that's because the theme of these presents is TIME.
Today's Sure Bet: Games. Or puzzels. Really, any real world (i.e., non-video) game makes a great kid present. Kids looooove games.
But here's the "catch": giving a game is like making a promise that you will play with the kid. Giving a game or puzzel when they have no one to play it with is just cruel. But if you set aside a time to play with them, or you set up a special place to work on the puzzel every night until it gets done, that is almost as exciting to them as the gift itself.
Time makes an excellent gift because it's rare, but that also means that not everyone has time to give. If you don't have the time to put together a puzzle or play a long round of Farkel, books also make great presents for your kid Valentine. But to special it up a little bit, maybe get them a really, really fancy book, and then they're Probably Going to Love It.
Our Annotated volumes of favorite books--Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, The Wizard of Oz--are beautiful, heirloom quality books that include not only the beloved original text but collected research, secrets, and speculations collected by experts on each classic tale.
Let your child fall in love with the stories, and then spend hours pouring over the art the characters inspired and the stories of how it came to be. Whereas the gift of candy is gone as soon as its eaten, these books will spark imaginations and instill a love of literature that will last long into adulthood.
The only reason I'm labelling this next one Big Risk is because a red plate doesn't have the instant gratification and wow factor of a brand new game or a pretty new book, and it's possible a kid will think it's boring at first; but I have never, in all my years of working here at The Afternoon, had anyone not love this plate. It is pretty much all Big Payoff. Use the plate first on Valentine's Day, but keep using it throughout the year--birthdays, test days, the night he or she is the peanut in the school play about the food groups--any time the kid needs an ego boost, a gold star, or a reminder that they are awesome, they get to use the Special Plate. It's a tradition that will make them feel loved...and really, isn't that what Valentine's Day is supposed to be about?
Today's Sure Bet: Games. Or puzzels. Really, any real world (i.e., non-video) game makes a great kid present. Kids looooove games.
But here's the "catch": giving a game is like making a promise that you will play with the kid. Giving a game or puzzel when they have no one to play it with is just cruel. But if you set aside a time to play with them, or you set up a special place to work on the puzzel every night until it gets done, that is almost as exciting to them as the gift itself.
Time makes an excellent gift because it's rare, but that also means that not everyone has time to give. If you don't have the time to put together a puzzle or play a long round of Farkel, books also make great presents for your kid Valentine. But to special it up a little bit, maybe get them a really, really fancy book, and then they're Probably Going to Love It.
Our Annotated volumes of favorite books--Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, The Wizard of Oz--are beautiful, heirloom quality books that include not only the beloved original text but collected research, secrets, and speculations collected by experts on each classic tale.
Let your child fall in love with the stories, and then spend hours pouring over the art the characters inspired and the stories of how it came to be. Whereas the gift of candy is gone as soon as its eaten, these books will spark imaginations and instill a love of literature that will last long into adulthood.
The only reason I'm labelling this next one Big Risk is because a red plate doesn't have the instant gratification and wow factor of a brand new game or a pretty new book, and it's possible a kid will think it's boring at first; but I have never, in all my years of working here at The Afternoon, had anyone not love this plate. It is pretty much all Big Payoff. Use the plate first on Valentine's Day, but keep using it throughout the year--birthdays, test days, the night he or she is the peanut in the school play about the food groups--any time the kid needs an ego boost, a gold star, or a reminder that they are awesome, they get to use the Special Plate. It's a tradition that will make them feel loved...and really, isn't that what Valentine's Day is supposed to be about?
