{"id":18088,"date":"2019-01-31T15:03:45","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T13:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/zaparents-blog\/?p=18088"},"modified":"2022-06-09T19:42:39","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T17:42:39","slug":"valentines-day-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/lifestyle\/charities\/valentines-day-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Buddy love this Valentine&#8217;s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You don\u2019t have to venture further than your local supermarket or shopping mall to know that Valentine\u2019s Day is around the corner.\u00a0 Look it\u2019s all very pretty: the red, pink and hearts and I\u2019m quite tempted to indulge in a box of chocolates myself, but I really don\u2019t buy it. <em>(Literally)<\/em> \u00a0I know, I\u2019m always the cynic, I just feel that love ought to be expressed year round, not with things but more with consistency, caring and special moments.<\/p>\n<p>Love can be expressed in so many different ways, not only materialistically.<\/p>\n<h2>Valentine&#8217;s for Buddies<\/h2>\n<p>And that\u2019s why I\u2019m super impressed with the idea my kids\u2019 school has every year on Valentine&#8217;s Day. It&#8217;s a tradition called Buddy Day and what happens is that they pair up kids of different ages as buddies.\u00a0 So a little first grader will be buddies with a senior grade child and they get to meet beforehand to get to know each other.<\/p>\n<p>Each one talks about their likes and dislikes, hobbies and family.\u00a0 On Valentine\u2019s Day, parents send a little picnic basket for the buddies to share and a little gift for the newfound buddy.\u00a0 We\u2019re encouraged to help the kids make something handcrafted or homemade so it\u2019s a bit more special.<\/p>\n<p>The kids spend some time together enjoying their picnic and from that day onward, they\u2019re buddies! It&#8217;s a win-win for all:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The smaller kids always have a buddy they can look up to, someone they can turn to when they\u2019re sad or lonely and someone they can say hello to during break (that\u2019s quite a cool thing with kids).<\/li>\n<li>The older kids have a sense of responsibility and a spirit of nurturing towards the little ones throughout the year and as the years go by, the circle of friendships grow.\u00a0 Kids having friends of a different age teaches them a lot about themselves as well as other qualities that shape and mould them for the future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How to show love on Valentine&#8217;s Day:<\/h2>\n<p>This type of activity shows kids that love is not just love in a romantic sense.\u00a0 Love is not just love for your parents or your siblings or your chosen friends. And love can be expressed in so many different ways, not only materialistically.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Love is taking an interest in someone you wouldn\u2019t normally do<\/li>\n<li>Love is showing compassion and caring for someone<\/li>\n<li>Love is being mindful and tolerant<\/li>\n<li>Love is forgiving even when you\u2019re hurting.<\/li>\n<li>Love is kindness and affection<\/li>\n<li>Love is simply something that can make someone feel better.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If kids are able to internalise this then I imagine a different future. Not one with constant hate and rage, not one where differences cannot be settled peacefully, not one where whole nations are going hungry and others are suffering obesity.<\/p>\n<p>I think the expectation created by Valentine\u2019s Day and what it\u2019s been made out to be can be heartbreaking, especially for tweens and teens.\u00a0 And even if dashed expectations are part of life, why should we impose them on kids unnecessarily?<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cYou will learn by reading,<br \/>\nBut you will understand with LOVE.\u201d<\/em><em>\u2013<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/everydaypower.com\/rumi-quotes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em> Rumi<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>This article was originally written for Jozikids by Fatima Kazee in 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Realted Useful Articles:<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Spoil yourself this Valentine&#8217;s Day, by Mia von Scha. Read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/parenting\/single-parenting\/valentines-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Grandparents Love is Priceless, by Fatima Kazee. Read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/parenting\/grandparents\/the-value-of-grandparents-is-irreplaceable\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b><i>Note: If you enjoyed this article, and would like to stay updated with more, you can:<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li2\"><i><\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>Subscribe to our free weekly Jozikids\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/member-registration\/\"><span class=\"s2\"><i>newsletter<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0 for parents in Gauteng<\/i><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><i><\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>Like us on <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jozikids.co.za\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s2\"><i>Facebook<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><i>Follow us on <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/jozikids?igshid=1n8cwedrewul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s2\"><i>Instagram<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m super impressed with the idea my kids\u2019 school has every year. They have what\u2019s called Buddy Day and On Valentine\u2019s Day, parents send a little picnic basket for the buddies to share and a little gift for the newfound buddy.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":18096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[373,374],"class_list":["post-18088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-charities","tag-valentines-day-for-kids","tag-values-of-valentines-day"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}