Valentine Babies

I'm still riding the high of last week's awesome baby program I did called Valentine Babies. It was SO CUTE, like, really one of those programs that is just fun and feels like a success.  It was for ages birth-16 months. First we read some "love-ly" books and sang some "love-ly" songs, and then we all broke off and worked on a craft-- which I almost never ever do with babies, but totally worked!

Here's the breakdown of time:

Book: A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy

2 songs: You Be the Ice Cream, Love Somebody, Yes I Do (Click each song for a Jbrary video where you can see and hear how it goes.)

Book: Counting Kisses by Karen Katz (in the form of a board book class set read individually between babies and caregivers)

2 more song: Yo Te Amo, Put Your Puppet on Your Heart (Click each song for a Jbrary video where you can see and hear how it goes.)

I had all four songs written out on a handout that I passed around so the adults could all sing along and then (if their copy wasn't too destoroyed by their baby) also sing the songs again at home.

You can download this handout here!

I only had 7 babies signed up, which I was happy with. That's pretty average for kids this age and for this time of day... BUT I had 12 babies show up! Such an awesome surprise considering this age range!

Like I said, I very rarely do crafts with teeny babies (despite the fact that I kind of just did one the week before this program in Littlest Learners). I guess this craft was more for the parents than the babies, but it was awesome either way! We truly made a Valentine's Day decoration keepsake that families could use and reuse year after year. See below:

The samples above were made by my kids (and me). The top was done by Sadie, age 3, and the bottom was done by Callie, age 1.5.

To prep for this craft, first I cut "L" and "E" shapes out on the Cricut. Then I pre-glued down and pre-laminated a handful of "E" sheets, since that one was the same for everyone. Then I set out the rest of the craft supplies: A ton of cardstock (in a Valentine's Day-ish color palette), two laminators that were hot and ready, a pile of laminator sheets, four bowls of white paint with sponge brushes, one hole punch that made its way around the room, a bunch of glue sticks, and a Sharpie for personalizing with something like "Sadie, February 2020."

To begin, I had the adults in a line in front of me and we worked together to stamp each of the baby's hands and feet, then we passed the stamped sheets over to Mary (our clerk) who helped with laminating. There was absolutely NO WAY that I could have done this without her help. We had such an efficiant little assembly line going. I can't even begin to comprehend the organized system that Mary had when she was laminating all these prints and somehow keeping track of whose feet and hand prints were whose, but whatever she was doing, it worked. 

After stamping their baby's feet, the adults wrote their name and date on the "L" sheet and then gave that to Mary too. When they had all four laminated papers, we punched holes in the tops and strung them together with string.

Seriously, all in all, this was AWESOME, albiet a little chaotic due to having 12 babies and planning for 7. Here's how I'd improve upon it next February:

1. This is the most important: I would DO THE CRAFT FIRST. The biggest hiccup in this program was that the paint didn't have time to dry and it ran a little in the laminating sheets. If we did all the stamping first, then there'd be a few minutes to let the paint dry before we ran it through the laminator. 

2. I'd make the program 45-minutes long instead of 30-minutes long. First we'd do the hand and feet stamping, then we'd sing the 4 songs and read A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy. Then, I'd let the parents start coming up and assembling the rest of their craft and also have the class set of Counting Kisses by Karen Katz out for them to read on their own if they wanted to while waiting their turn with the laminator.

3. I might pre-laminate the "L" sheets also and just have the parents write on either the "O" or "V" sheets. That way there are only two sheets to laminate on the spot for each patron, instead of 3. I do like the way the written text looks on the "L" but it might not be worth it, considering the amount of time we could save.

Here's what I'd do the same:

1. Same actual craft product. It was so cute and the parents loved it (har har, no pun intended). I was hearing about what a hit this was for days and up until today in fact!

2. Definitely, I'd need Mary to help me again. This is not a craft program for only one staff person.

Aaaaand I will let the above few sentances suffice as my "What worked least" and "What worked best" for this post. This is a program that I feel super proud of and one that I will totally be doing again next year!