I remember Valentine’s Day when I was a kid. My mom would place hearts with messages on them all over the house for everyone – on our bedroom doors, on the bathroom mirrors, on the cereal boxes so we’d find them when we made our breakfast, in backpacks, lunchboxes and briefcases.
I decided to take that idea and build it up from the beginning of the month until Valentine’s Day. So by the time the 14th gets here, he’ll have quite a collection of encouragement.
- You are awesome
- You are kind
- You make me laugh
- You are intelligent
- I love your smile
- Your creativity amazes me
- You give the best hugs
- You have a great imagination
- You are strong
- You are brave / courageous
- You rock!
- I love watching you do what you love
- I am amazed by your abilities
- You are confident
- You are unique
- You can do BIG things
- You are talented
- There is no one else in the world like you
- You are special / God made you special
- I will always love you
- You are adored
- You are my sunshine.
- You are so good at ________
- You are a good friend /sibling
- You are cherished
- I am so thankful for you
- You are incredible
- You make me happy
- Dream big!
These are pretty generic but they can be a good jumping point for ideas for your own children. When I wrote #10 I was thinking about my son’s karate training. It’s very clear that he loves it and I love watching him love it. I can also tell him that he is a good sport (when he competes). You can replace “creativity” in #6 with specific examples: your drawing amazes me, your LEGO buildings amaze me, etc etc. #14 can be “You are talented at _______”.
Let’s build our kids up over the next couple weeks!
My husband and I just decorated our 11 year old daughter’s door for Valentine’sday, and we used pink paper to cut out a bunch of hearts and write positive sayings to put all over her room. Doing things like this not only lets her know how much she is loved, but it makes us reflect on how lucky we are to have her!