February 14, 2007 Valentine's Day

I rarely question my decision to homeschool my kids but when Valentine's Day comes around and I inevitably think about giving and receiving Valentines as a child, I waver just a little. Especially for Gloria. There is just something about getting a box stuffed with Valentines and hoping that maybe the boy you have a crush on might write something sweet. . . So, I have always tried to compromise and arrange for the kids to be a part of some other party around Valentine's Day. Tonight at Kid's Club, the kids created Valentine's for one another around the theme we've been talking about for the last month- the fruit of the Spirit. We've been doing a study around the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and the seven deadly sins. It's been really fun and to balance it out, we've been talking about the Fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Righteousness, and Self-control. Louise talked to the kids about positive traits they see in others and how each one of us is special in God's eyes. She pointed out that when we make others feel bad or say things that aren't nice about someone, we are saying it about someone that God created and loves deeply. She led a discussion in which the kids found kind things to say about the other kids in the group and then we made special Valentines that named these traits for each child. The kids had a great time thinking up kind things to say about each other and got very creative. On Elsie's card, Gloria wrote, "thanks for teaching me and Megan right from wrong"!! She also eased my guilty conscience by writing large X's and O's to one of the boys in the class, leading me to believe she'll find plenty of boys to have crushes on without going to public school!!

Here are the kids holding up their Valentines after Kid's Club:

Gloria, February 14, 2007


Zach, February 14, 2007