Nerdy School Valentines for your Smarties

It’s one of my big traditions:  Coming up with clever, and not-too-often-seen Valentine’s cards for my kids to take to school each year. In our area handmade Valentines are very rare and definitely stand out from the crowd. Sometimes they can be a lot of work leaving moms to wonder if they are really worth the effort. In fact, I had the same question this year and seriously considered using this pregnancy (which is still kicking my bootie most days) as a reasonable excuse to break with tradition. However, when my 8th grade daughter’s friends can remember every Valentine she has ever brought to school (and still talk about them), and I remembered that this is probably her last year of doing this sort of thing, it felt like too big of a tradition to break. (That’s what you get for setting expectations. :-)) She did give me the input that she thought some of her friends were disappointed that last year’s non-candy Valentines were, well…non-candy. So we went back to cavity-land this year–but with an academic twist.

I staged a quick photo shoot with my kids using a wrapping paper background, some nerd glasses, and a red bow tie. I didn’t think the 1st grader should be calling anyone “Nerds,” so we went with Smarties instead. I had her put her hand out to get the effect of holding the candy, a little like the suckers, and roses, we’ve done in the past.

This was the best picture of my 4th grader, though I think he looks like he’s half nerd/half James Bond. He thought it worked because he says it looks like he’s taking off the glasses and the card says “Don’t be a nerd,” so he’s not going to be a nerd any more.

My oldest, on the other hand, has fully embraced her nerdiness and would gladly wear nerd glasses on a regular basis if she needed them! She didn’t want to tell her friends not to be “Nerds” because being smart is a good thing! (According to the NJHS member/spelling bee winner/Honor Roll Bookwork). So instead, we unearthed the nerdiest, most pretentious language we could think of to wish her friends a Happy Valentine’s Day. Her card reads:

“Please accept this minuscule offering as a token of my warm sentiments of fellowship toward your person and admiration for your superior intellectual capabilities. According to my calculations, there is an extremely elevated probability that we were destined to be friends.”

I wonder if any of her friends will pull out their dictionaries to read the valentine. For the photoshoot I had her hold a cereal box that I covered with the image of a Nerds box digitally, so we could give the effect of her handing the box to her friends. I didn’t quite get the print size right for the size of the nerd boxes, but it still gives the effect.

Can’t wait to hear how they went over! So did you school valentines this year? Candy or non-candy? Store-bought or homemade? Pinterest ideas or on your own?