Valentine's Countdown

I am attempting to do SOMETHING educational with Jackson each day. For me, I need a plan (could this be because of my teacher-ness? Probably. I mean I even bought a lesson plan book so I could plan this kind of stuff out... old habits die hard). So I have been looking online and finally decided to just go for it and purchase a Valentine's Day Countdown from My Delicious Ambiguity. So stinkin' cute and I don't have to come up with the ideas! It took me forever to finally put it together but here is what I came up with for our Valentine Countdown.


Valentine's Countdown Days 1 & Day 2

This is the countdown.  I only used 14 days, although the kit came with 31 numbers and 70 activities!  I picked 17 I thinkto do, I put a couple activities in a few of the pockets to make the activity have a little more "meat" for the day.  I loved the variety though, because I picked activities Jackson can do this year and there are plenty to do next year with him and Maxwell!

 The Banner "Valentine Countdown" is the FIRST project I completed using my Silhouette SD.  Love it, although it took me 3 tries to figure out how to get it all to print, but now I have tried it and I will get moving on some other projects I have in mind.

I tried to get rid of these cookie sheets, but snagged them out of the Good Will bag to make this project.  I spray painted them pink, Andy drilled holes in them and I attached them together using ribbon. For #7-14 I Modge Podged them onto the cookie sheets.  I HATE the look and will probably re-do it for next year.  I used the glossy Modge Podge and I really don't like it. But otherwise I am happy with the project.

Day 1:  Counting Hearts

  Jman has a short attention span with counting when I want him to (he can count to 16 when you aren't paying attention to  him), but we tried a bit and then he just played.  He also used some plastic tongs to put the hearts in different sections of the numbered egg crate.

 materials for Day 1... #1-12 in the bottomof the egg carton, conversation hearts (but you could use beads or something else if your child is distracted by the candy).  I got some bowls at Walmart for $1.50 for 2.  I went a little crazy getting things for all our activities, but I will be able to use them next year, too!

Day 2:  Sandpaper Heart rubbings...

This did not go over very well.  Jackson was not into the rubbing and was just cranky (probably because I turned off Team Umizumi- his new favorite show).  But we tried!

 To make the little guy happy, I brought out the glitter glue (from Dollar Tree- super good deal). He loves this stuff! He left the activity smiling and happy to go take his bath.

What baby Maxwell was doing while we were trying to do the rubbings.

Some brotherly love. :)