Silly Valentine’s Day Games For Kids To Play
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner!
While this holiday is traditionally a day for lovers, there’s no reason your kids can’t participate in it too. The day is about love in general and is a perfect time to express your affection for everyone you hold dear in life. Culturally, we put significant weight on significant others, but the truth is we need love from a number of different sources: partners, yes, but also parents, children, friends, community, et cetera. This is a great time to remind your kids that love comes in many forms, too—it’s not just about romance.
Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be all about candy and flowers. You can also center the celebration around family time, and keeping active with some fun Valentine’s Day Games For Kids. This is a great way to involve the kids in the celebration—whether it’s a full family night or just some activities before you and your partner leave the kids with the sitter and head out on your date night.
Check out some of these fun Valentine’s Day themed games you can play with the kids this February!
Valentine’s Day Tic Tac Toe
Everyone knows this classic game, whether by Tic Tac Toe or “X”s and “O”s. Whether you’re an artist or not, it’s relatively easy to transform this into a Valentine’s Day themed game! Deck out a piece of poster board to make an extravagant, oversized gridded game board. Then create pink and red “X” and “O” tiles to play with! If you’re really feeling the Valentine’s Day spirit, make the “O”s into heart shapes.
The best part about this Valentine’s Day Tic Tac Toe is that you can pull this together in just a few minutes, too—great for parents with busy schedules, or a babysitting activity!
Cupid Says
Feeling like your kids are just too occupied with the TV or video games? Get them up and active with “Cupid Says.” This is just the traditional Simon Says game, with a Valentine’s Day twist. Sneak in little holiday-themed gestures: “Cupid says, ‘Throw an Air Kiss!” “Place Your Hand on Your Heart.” “Cupid says, ‘Give a Kiss.’” This activity is sure to get the kids up and moving.
This Valentine’s Day game has the added benefit of serving as a speech therapy activity. Parents can take advantage of this activity to advance the skills of their little ones and keep them active too.
Minute To Win It: Valentine’s Day Games For Kids
If you’ve heard of TV’s Minute To Win It, you’ll probably already know how to play this game. If not, it’s easy to learn. Create a series of 60-second challenges involving common household items. From plastic cups to empty soda bottles, you can repurpose almost anything lying around the house into a Minute To Win It challenge item. Put a holiday spin on it by centering themed games and activities. For example, you can do a “love connection” match, where kids have to find matching broken heart halves from a stack, or a “put a ring on it” Valentine’s Day ring toss.
Who Do You Love?
You may not have heard of this one before, but if you’re familiar with “Duck Duck Goose” or “Musical Chairs,” you’re on the right track. This activity may require a handful of children—so if you’re looking to have a party (or a group babysitter), “Who Do You Love?” is the perfect kids’ game for Valentine’s Day.
Sit all the kids in chairs in a circle, with one in the center. The standing child picks a seated one to ask the question, “Who Do You Love?” The seated kids take turns answering the question with something they love. For example, “I love the color red” or “I love hearts.” When the music cuts out, any child who loved the same object/item (as well as the kid in the center) stands up and scrambles for a seat. The one who doesn’t find a seat at the end of each round becomes “it.”
You may need added energy to handle the extra children and movement, as this game will keep you—and the kids—active. That’s why it makes a particularly great babysitter activity!
Valentine’s Day Family Feud
Those who watch Family Feud on TV will already get the gist of this one—and if you haven’t, it’s relatively straightforward! Valentine’s Day Family Feud puts a holiday-themed twist on this classic team-trivia game. You can scale the complexity of the questions up or down depending on the ages of the kids you’re playing with, to make sure they’re engaged. The winner can get a jar of holiday candy as a treat!
Make This Valentine’s Day One Your Kids Love Too!
While the focus of Valentine’s Day might traditionally fall on couples and lovers, it doesn’t always have to. Loop your kids in on the festivity—love is important for everyone!
Of course, some of these activities take a little planning beforehand. If you’ve been busy, or just forgot about the occasion, no worries! You can always hire a babysitter to assist on a special day. Likewise, if you’re looking for quality alone time with your partner, book a babysitter to do these activities with the kids instead.
If you’re in need of childcare this Valentine’s Day, it helps to start your search early. For obvious reasons, this is a popular day for booking childcare services, and sitters’ schedules can fill up quickly.
Call Emmy is a particularly great service for parents who need to find a nanny or sitter quickly! Their app is truly designed for on-demand babysitting, with most requests filled within the hour. Thanks to a rigorous vetting process, you can be sure your children are in good hands.
You can even dictate how you would like the time to pass by providing your sitter with a detailed list of instructions for the evening. Unlike many similar apps, the service is completely free to book—you only pay for the childcare you receive! What are you waiting for? Sign up for Call Emmy today!