Valentine's Day Love Coupons

Submitted by
Sonam Adinolf

Who loves to redeem coupons? You do, especially when it's your kid handing out homemade coupons for free hugs, I-love-yous, and dishwashing sessions.

Coupon creator:
Your kid.
Redeemer:
You, your partner, grandma—anyone your kid deems worthy of a little love.
Construction paper:
You can use pink or red if you're going for a Valentine's Day vibe, but any colors will do.
A marker
Hole puncher
Ribbon:
A small, thin piece to loop the booklet together.
Embellishments:
Glitter, heart-shaped stickers, rhinestones, markers, etc.
Scissors

To begin, have your kid decide who is she is going to give her coupon booklets to. Tell her to keep her list short or she may be embarking on months of indentured servitude!
Encourage her to make a list of all of the selfless, fabulous things she is willing to do for each of her "redeemers." Washing the dishes? Give mommy and daddy lots of hugs? Cleaning her room? She may want to limit each booklet to four or five coupons to keep her from turning into Cinderella.
Next, help her cut the construction paper into dollar bill-sized rectangles.
Have her (or help her) write out what each coupon is redeemable for (e.g., feeding Fido for a week). Make sure she avoids the upper left-hand corner of the paper because ...
... once she's done writing she'll need to punch a hole in the upper left-hand corner of each coupon.
Invite her to deck out her coupons with glitter, heart-shaped stickers, and whatever else will make her feel happy about tackling the job when the coupon is redeemed.
Then have her string each booklet on to a piece of ribbon, tie it in a bow and … voila! An awesome gift from a kid with a lot of time and a lot less money!