Valentine’s Day Friendship Bracelets :: For School Friends

Valentine’s Day friendship bracelets? For an entire class? 

In theory, Valentine’s Day greetings for school friends, is very simple. Buy some mini v-day cards, encourage your little one to write their little friends’ names on them, and voila! You’re done.

But you know us. We’re always looking for the detour – as we have a knack for zig zagging our way to the same destination. And Big Daddy, most certainly, has had enough of his make-project crazed girls already. But why fight it? When you and your Little Mama just have to take one extra teeny tiny step, then you’ve just gotta scratch that creative itch.

Last year, when Little Mama was in preschool, we were all about Valentine’s Day heart springs. I figured, since Little Mama is still at the age where her tactile senses are at an all time high, we might as well continue where we left off from last Valentine’s day. As this year’s Valentine’s Day cards for school, we decided to move our 2D greeting into something a little more tangible. First order of business… hunt around the house. To our joy and surprise, we found an entire box that she received as a Christmas gift of beads, beads, and more beads. To be completely honest, when she first opened this gift in December, I thought to myself… “Oh no. This is going to be a nightmare to clean up.” And guess what? It is. 

But steering Little Mama away from her initial thoughts of using the beads as pretend cereal for her dolls, or confetti for the floor, I figured, why not use these amazing little pieces exactly the way they’re meant to be used? To make jewelry! Better yet, Valentine’s Day friendship bracelets!

I know, I know… not so unique right? And how inconvenient. The thought of maneuvering tiny elastic string into even tinier bead holes for 20+ kids sounds downright daunting. But, in the midst of my skepticism, I found the silver lining. Here they are, in order of ah-ha worthy moments:

1. This is an excellent way to unload some of these beads out of its container and off my floors.
2. It’s easy. But, time consuming. I call it sweat equity. 
3. Her fine motor skills and eye hand coordination skills are exercised. TO. THE. MAX. Mom’s too. 
4. It’s so nice for her little friends to receive something they can wear. You should have seen Little Mama‘s face the next day when half of her class proudly wore her creation to school. We even got some follow up texts of kids proudly donning their new fashion piece the second they got home.
5. It’s a fun way to see how Little Mama sees her friends’ individual sense of style. For example, take her little friend Emma. She is not the biggest princess-loving kinda gal (we adore that about her, fyi). Little Mama knew immediately when she picked out the colors, to DEFINITELY go for the neutral options and not to include any pink (GASP!). Little Emma’s Valentine’s Day friendship bracelet ended up looking pretty coordinated, but funky. I guess that’s how she sees her little buddy – grace, minus the lace. 
6. It gave her something to do over the long weekend and off the television. Needless to say, my laundry has been folded, and dishes washed. Win win for me.
7. Each of the Valentine’s day friendship bracelets, included the child’s name (if it’s short) or their initials. This gave Little Mama the fun challenge of learning how to spell other people’s names. Or how to spell at all.
8. Each card that the bracelets came with included a nice, easy message that I was able to print on my handy dandy printer, but being the Tiger mom I am (Big Daddy would laugh because it’s pretty much the most untrue thing I’ve ever said to date), I made the poor thing write each and every name on her own. It was great practice. And she was so proud of herself when she was done. An hour later (um… that was just the NAME part!).  
9. And finally, did I mention, it’s a great way to get the beads out of my house? Because… floors. 

And off she went. Our little Valentine’s Day Friendship bracelet maker got to work.

One bead at a time. 

Before we knew it, she went through her class list like a champ. 

And by Valentine’s Day morning, she literally skipped to school with pink bag in tow, housing little Valentine’s Day friendship bracelets for her kinder class. All the good feels for Little Mama, and sparkly bead-free floors for me!

Though the little bounce to her step may have had something to do with daddy’s special annual chocolate treats for both his leading ladies. We love waking up to his Valentine’s Day surprise.

Happy Chocolate … errr, I mean… Valentine’s Day! We’re thrilled our Valentine’s Day friendship bracelets ended up fitting right into our plans. After all, friendship – is love.

Happy Love day!

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