Valentine's Day products are flooding the shelves while commercials are declaring the need to buy expensive jewelry for the one you love. Meanwhile I am at home trying to find inexpensive ways to do multiple activities with my kids. When I say inexpensive, I truly mean it...like $1.00 inexpensive.

I know it sounds like I am a cheapo but reality is my tight budget will not allow me to buy much in the extras category. Which I have to say is so hard not to give in and just scoop up all those darling products and crafty items. However, I will wait for the Valentine's Day Sales before buying up those extras and use them for next year's celebration of Family Appreciation Day.

While shopping at my local Dollar Store for monthly household supplies I headed into the Valentine's Day aisle. I saw all the cute items and zeroed in on a package of 100 sticky hearts. Instantly I began thinking of ways to use them for both my toddler and my kindergartner. While dropping toilet paper and other house hold items in my cart, I came up with the following simple and fun activities to do with a simple $1.00 package of 100 Sticky Hearts.
Sensory Box Sensation
What is more fun than playing with a bunch of stuff in a box? I placed red, pink and white fabric flower petals in a tin box I had from Christmas cookies. I added heart shaped beads and a handful of sticky hearts. All these items have different textures for my toddler to experience while playing.
Learning Wall Decorations
Our learning wall needed a festive pep for February. A few sticky hearts placed randomly on the wall did the trick. I also punched a hole in one sticky heart and left on the paper backing to use as the day selector.
Name Spelling Set
I thought this would be a fun way for my daughter to learn how to spell her name. I left the paper backing on so she can spell her name over and over. I had enough hearts left over after the other activities that I was able to make name sets for the toddlers in our churches toddler room.
Tic-Tac-Toe Game
This activity would be a great one to make as a Valentine gift for classmates. I used one of my jewelry bags as the board. I made the # sign out of strips of Duct tape. Each player gets six hearts and then places them for storage inside the bag when done playing. A small pencil and piece of paper could be placed inside the bag for keeping score.
Sight Words Revamped
I know with my son there have been times he has become tired of looking at another piece of paper or card with his sight words written on them. This is a fun way to incorporate the holiday and learning. Once Valentine's Day sales are active I plan on getting more of these hearts so we can make duplicates of his words to make a memory game out of his sight words.
Words of Inspiration Lunch Boxes
Not all kids are going to enjoy this; however, my son is still young enough that I have a few years before he hates this type of sentiment. As a mom, I think this is an awesome way to remind my son that he is amazing. The heart shaped food is required for added mushiness.
Light Box Fun
My toddler loves the light box that daddy made for Christmas. She puts everything on the light box. I found it fun watching her realize that the light shown through some of the hearts and not others. This is also a simple way to incorporate a new shape into her learning.
Fine Motor Stringing 
There are endless activities that you could do with this simple package of sticky hearts that cost only $1.00. I hope you have enjoyed the activity ideas I have offered you here.

Let me know in the comments what ideas you can think of to do with these sticky hearts.

I became very impressed with the hand-eye-coordination my daughter displayed. She mixed and swirled the paint. She used a spoon to transfer paint from the bowl to her paper. She used a sponge brush to make painted lines. My daughter even made clean cookie cutter shapes.
Creative activities, like painting, help her brain develop. The right side of her brain is used for emotional and creative responses, while the left side of her brain focuses on analytical processes and logic. Painting benefits my daughter by using both sides of her brain. By stimulating the creative side of her brain, painting helps make the connection between the two sides, which is how we reach our full potential.

Then it happened! Self-expression became so much messier! My daughter realized that the paint felt cool on her skin. She began innocently painting her hands and splashing her legs. As she began giggling and happily splashing, she stops... looks at the sponge brush... looks at me... back at the brush and I knew what was going to happen next was going to be drastic...
My 16-month-old daughter began painting her hair. While saying, "brush...brush...mommy brush". Oh yes she brushed her entire head. I allowed this to continue until the paint began running toward her eyes. She was stripped where she stood and directly in the sink she went. After changing the water twice and finding paint in all crevices my green tinted toddler was cleaned.
I do not know why I am so surprised at how this toddler led painting session turned out the way it did. I mean honestly! What would you do with paint if you were one?

I love the twinkly lights. I prefer multicolored scenes however a traditional house simply decorated in white lights can be gorgeous!
I love beautifully wrapped presents under a decorated tree with homemade ornaments waiting to be opened by eager children.
I love the songs! "Mary Did You Know" gives me goosed bumps every time I hear it. What is more powerful than the idea that a baby will change the world? Could you imagine being the mother of a child with such prophecy! Overwhelming!
I love the smells of baking cookies and what is better than scented candles extending those delicious scents.
Most importantly I L-O-V-E the togetherness of family and friends.
For me Christmas has NEVER been about what can I get but about how can I bless you! I was taught at a young age to ALWAYS appreciate what I received from others because that simple gift could be all they have.
I remember being in the position of having nothing a couple of different times. I do not mean oh I didn't have what I wanted type of having nothing. I literally had nothing but the clothing on my back and no place to sleep. Due to different circumstances my family experienced multiple house fires. I remember living with my Aunt and Uncle while my parents and younger brother lived in a camper on my grandparents property. Our house and all that was inside was lost including our Christmas gifts.

My family received donations of clothing, food, appliances, all basic needs. We moved into an adopted family members home just before Christmas. This was the best Christmas we had! We were able to be together under one roof with our basic needs covered because of the generosity of others. Since that day I vowed to always help others when I could, it also made me realize that we never know what others are going through therefore a simple gesture of kindness may be more than we could understand.

Now as a mom I make it my mission to teach my children this life lesson without them having to experience what I did. In general were encourage acts of kindness however during Christmas I find it more important than ever.
During the summer were were blessed with duplicate copies of books. We took the duplicates and donated them to Toys For Tots. The U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program involves members of the community dropping new, unwrapped toys in collection boxes positioned in local businesses. At Christmas coordinators, with the assistance of local social welfare agencies, church groups, and other local community agencies, distribute the toys to the less fortunate children of the community.

She began grabbing the small bells out of the basket and shaking them. Enjoying the sound she shakes more small bells and then sees the medium bells and begins shaking those too.

I could see the realization cross her face as it registered that the small and medium bells made different sounds. Then she found the cluster of different sized bells with excitement she began playing her own version of jingle bells for the next 10 minutes before boredom creeps in.
The next activity my toddler thought she needed to do was dump out the balls and bells onto the floor.
Much later that evening after dinner and bathtime new interest for the basket of balls and bells was investigated. My daughter dumped the basket's baubles onto the rug and began really looking at the different textures of the ribbon and balls.

Excitement grew as she realized she was able to pull the ribbon off the balls. I had intentionally left the ribbons untied to see what she would do. She gently pulled at the first ribbon but then more rougher as she pulled on each new ribbon. This kept her interest long enough for mommy to restring the ribbons at least 15 times.
The next experience was comparing the textures of the balls. There are four types of Christmas balls in the colors or red, gold and green. There are smooth, glittered bumpy, disco ball form, and decorated with snowflakes in glitter balls.

It was interesting watching my daughter touch each type of ball and shake her head no as she felt another ball to match the textures. She is a smart little girl that amazes me everyday as I watch her experience new things. Some of the most enjoyable moments I have is just watching my children play and see them growing as they innocently play.
Such a simple and cheap Sensory Bin that my toddler is genuinely loving to play with. There are some great benefits of her playing with this Sensory Bin besides mommy relaxing while watching the fun.

The benefits of my daughter playing with the Jingle Bells include fine motor skills, improving the pincer grasp, strengthening fine muscle control as she shakes the bells, pitch recognition and enjoying independant play.

Some benefits of playing with the Christmas Balls include improving hand-eye coordination, texture recognition, comparison and contrast skills, and cause and effect response from pulling on the ribbons.

Try this simple Sensory Box with extra Christmas supplies. Tell us how your toddler is experimenting with the objects.

I am so excited that I was able to create this fun Christmas Countdown for my family to enjoy for FREE!

What types of activities do you and your family do during the Christmas Season? Share in the comments, insert links if you like!