we had our housekeeper make them, we usually give a budget of $150

They get less elaborate as the kid ages. We stopped homemade in 3rd grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does this go on in the title 1 schools? My kid is slated to go to one of the must maligned ( here on DCUM) APS elementaries. I'm wondering if they will even do Valentines? Anybody got kids at Barcroft, Randolph, carlin springs, or Abingdon? Anybody know what to expect?
Ps- I loved making and giving valentines as a kid. Now, I'm one of those moms looking for ideas on Pinterest. Can't help it. I love this crap.

I'm not at APS but at my Title 1 school they did valentines. I was in several classes and a fair number of students participated.

I'm not in APS either but my kid's Title I school had a party and a Valentine's exchange. He got Valentines from everyone in his class (15 other kids.) They also had a party--we were all asked to send in $3. He came home with a medium sized gift bag filled with candy and cards.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does this go on in the title 1 schools? My kid is slated to go to one of the must maligned ( here on DCUM) APS elementaries. I'm wondering if they will even do Valentines? Anybody got kids at Barcroft, Randolph, carlin springs, or Abingdon? Anybody know what to expect?
Ps- I loved making and giving valentines as a kid. Now, I'm one of those moms looking for ideas on Pinterest. Can't help it. I love this crap.

I'm not at APS but at my Title 1 school they did valentines. I was in several classes and a fair number of students participated.

+1, last year in K, the teacher sent home half sheets of pink paper with "To:, From:" printed on them. It was their homework for the week to write their classmates names and their name. They could use the pink paper or their own cards. I would say about half use the pink paper and then taped a lollipop etc to it. Title 1, FCPS

You don't have to participate in the arms race.

Preschool mom here. I had the same situation - I filled out flat paper valentines and received beautiful works of art in return. By far mine were the worst. I'm not sure where to get the memo for these types of things!

The ones in my first grader's class were kind of crappy and unremarkable.

If only you would use your powers for good.

Anonymous wrote:Who has time for all this?

I guess people like to spend time spreading valentines cheer with their kids... Instead of snarking on the Internet.
However...
I'm such mother f%#&ing boss I can craft, parent, and snark all at once.
Oh yeah.

Who has time for all this?

Anonymous wrote:Does this go on in the title 1 schools? My kid is slated to go to one of the must maligned ( here on DCUM) APS elementaries. I'm wondering if they will even do Valentines? Anybody got kids at Barcroft, Randolph, carlin springs, or Abingdon? Anybody know what to expect?
Ps- I loved making and giving valentines as a kid. Now, I'm one of those moms looking for ideas on Pinterest. Can't help it. I love this crap.

I'm not at APS but at my Title 1 school they did valentines. I was in several classes and a fair number of students participated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is my first year as a mom of an APS school and I was a little shocked at how fancy the V-day cards were.

One kid sent a picture where her hand was holding candy.
Another sent a stuffed animal!
Many did home-made ones, which I get.
What did I do? Got plain cards from the drug store like ONLY ONE OTHER!
When I was a kid, everybody got plain cards.

What the hell happened and how did I not get the memo?

I went way overboard and did gift bags with all kinds of goodies. I envy the moms who did a single card and nothing else - I do not feel superior at all. It's clear I have issues that I am expressing by turning V-day into a mommy competition (my kid didn't even get to touch the Valentines - I did it all except for the signing part). Keep it simple, mom. We need people like you to bring back the sanity.

OP - I am also new to APS and had the same reaction as you. All we did was drugstore cards, no treat or stickers. It honestly did not occur to me to do anything else. I was floored by what my kid received. Two gift bags, including one tied with ribbons. When I saw them I felt like ours were totally inadequate. I guess I need to step it up next year.

PP - so interesting what you said. I assumed that our room's Pinterest mom was thinking that I am lazy and uncreative, and maybe she was, but maybe not.

We are in APS 1st grade and while every card had a treat (stickers, tattoos, eraser, candy), most of the cards were the small Target-like Valentine's. Ours, too. NBD.

I did store bought this year because we were at a new school and I didn't wanna look like I was trying too hard. Next year I'll no longer have that fear!

Some of my students were very creative with their valentines including homemade slime, laminated bookmarks, windmills, etc. There were also plenty of store-bought valentines simple homemade ones as well.