One of the things that I really enjoy with my oldest son is doing seasonal-themed homeschool activities.
Since February has begun, we are learning about Valentine’s Day! As a bicultural, international family, it’s exciting to learn about the different aspects of holidays, and create our own family traditions.
Doing fun activities is also helpful for getting over the midwinter slump during the coldest time of the year!
Continue reading below for some Valentine’s Day freebies!! Please note that this post includes an affiliate link. If you choose to use it, it helps our family. Thank you so much!!
To learn about and celebrate Valentine’s Day, we are using some free materials that I have linked below. Feel free to download them for your own family, or scroll toward the middle of this post to learn more about the history of Valentine’s Day and how it is celebrated in Japan!
For the Love of Homeschooling Valentine’s Tea Party Pack
For the Love of Homeschooling has a super cute Valentine’s Tea Party pack available free through their site! You can print it on cardstock with folding flaps to make some of the items (such as a teapot and teacup) stand up. This printable pack is perfect for preschoolers or kindergarteners.
Personally I opted to cut off the folding flaps and laminate the whole set so that my toddler could play “picnic” together with my preschooler without me having to worry about the pieces being quickly destroyed.
We are currently using the book Preschool Math at Home by Kate Snow which has lots of hands-on counting games, so we have been using the heart cookies and cupcakes for our math activities!
Raising Wild Saints St. Valentine Freebie Pack
Raising Wild Saints provides free liturgical resources for celebrating the Christian year. Please note that the creators of Raising Wild Saints are Catholic. Although we are not Catholic, we still enjoyed the free Saint Valentine Pack available through their site.
The printable includes a recipe, copywork, a coloring page, and letter dot mats. The pack is appropriate for kindergarteners and early elementary students, as well as some upper-level preschoolers. You could skip the writing activities and just do the coloring page, letter dot mats, and recipe with younger preschoolers, depending on their skill level.
You can access the St. Valentine freebie pack by signing up for Raising Wild Saint’s freebie vault, linked below.
Simple Creative Living Valentine’s Alphabet Worksheets
Simple Creative Living offers a fun set of Valentine’s-themed alphabet worksheets that includes a combination of copywork, coloring, and cutting / pasting activities. The worksheets might be considered appropriate for children around kindergarten age, or younger/older, depending on their skill level.
My oldest son has been requesting abc practice worksheets, so this was perfect for him! You can download the worksheets from the link below.
Gentle + Classical Press Valentine’s Freebie Pack
This pack includes memory statement cards, a book list, copywork, a scripture printable, a scavenger hunt, craft instructions, and more! It can be used with a flexible range of ages, from preschoolers through early elementary.
We started this freebie pack a few days ago, and my preschooler has been enjoying it so much!! You can see a picture of the woven yarn heart he made using the Valentine’s freebie pack in the picture below.
If you enjoy the freebie pack and are interested in purchasing more items from Gentle + Classical Press, use this link to get 5$ off your purchase of 20$ or more if you are a new customer!
Extra: Little Way Chapel’s St. Valentine’s Day Pack
Little Way Chapel has another excellent St. Valentine’s Day pack that we will be using later this month.
It is NOT a freebie (nor am I affiliated with the site), but is so great that I had to include it in this post!!
The St. Valentine’s Day pack comes with an explanation of the history of St. Valentine, a book list, a hymn, Valentine’s Day card cutouts to color, a memory game, and more! It can be used by a wide age range, from preschoolers through elementary.
Little Way Chapel’s Valentine’s guide is NOT a freebie, BUT the site occasionally offers one month free trials.
The membership trial allows you to get reduced prices on some resources, and other items for free. You can check out the Valentine’s day pack HERE for home / personal use, or HERE for a group use license.
The Origin of Valentine’s Day
Although dozens of countries celebrate Valentine’s Day in different ways, the commercial holiday with its affinity for pink hearts and chocolate candies originated from a day to commemorate St. Valentine, a Christian martyr.
Valentine was a bishop in Rome who was killed for breaking the law of Emperor Claudius the II. Claudius, also known as “Claudius the Cruel”, waged many wars, and eventually there were few men willing to sign up to become Roman soldiers.
As a result the Emperor placed a ban prohibiting people to marry, with the aim that more men would join the military. When Valentine defied this ban and continued to help couples to marry in secret, he was arrested and put in jail.
Legend has it that one of the jailers brought his blind daughter to Valentine and asked him to pray for her to receive her sight. Valentine agreed to pray for her, and it is said that she was miraculously healed. After this some believe that the jailer converted to Christianity, and that Valentine and his daughter became good friends (some even say they fell in love).
Yet their friendship and/or love story would have a tragic end, since Valentine was still scheduled to be executed. Before Valentine was killed, he wrote a letter to the jailer’s daughter, signed from, “Your Valentine”, a phrase that is still used by many to this day.
Whether all of the stories surrounding St. Valentine are true is up for debate, but knowing the origin of the holiday certainly makes it a lot more meaningful!
Valentine’s Day in Japan
In Japan, Valentine’s Day is traditionally a day that women present gifts to men, which is reciprocated on March 14th (“White Day”), when men return this favor by giving gifts to women. White Day was originally thus named because of a campaign by a marshmallow company in the 1960s.
Valentine’s Day gifts in Japan focus primarily on homemade or store-bought chocolate – not flowers, nice dinners, colorful cards, or jewelry like in other countries. In Japan the holiday is also not aimed directly at “lovers”, but women may give gifts to all of their male coworkers and friends, as well as to a significant other.
This tradition has been falling out of popularity over the last few years however, and many workplaces no longer allow the practice as it is viewed as putting too much pressure on women to spend money to prevent falling out of favor in the workplace.
Instead, recently more women enjoy giving gifts of chocolate to friends, family, and significant others, and men often opt to reciprocate only to those who are close to them (vs. all of their female coworkers) on March 14th.
In our family, we opt for a mix of Valentine’s Day traditions.
My husband’s birthday is the day before Valentine’s Day, so I often bake a homemade chocolate cake or treats for our family to share, and we might go out to a nice restaurant (taking cues from the American version of the holiday). My Japanese mother-in-law also purchases chocolates for us.
Rather than allowing the holiday to be nothing more than another excuse for a sugar rush, in our family we also enjoy reading books, watching videos, and doing crafts and activities like those featured in this post to share to our kids about the history of St. Valentine.
We hope you find some of the free resources featured in this post helpful in your home!
If you enjoyed reading, feel free to send us a note on Instagram! @happilyeverharuna
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