**DaY 2**

It's Day 2 of our Valentine's Day Love and Craft segment!

Today I want to highlight one of my favorite books of all time:

written by: Emily Pearson

Every year I read this to my 2nd graders and they hung on to every word. In fact one year my class even did an assembly on the power of this book. 

Although this is not a Valentine's Day book, it has everything to do with showing LOVE and APPRECIATION for others. In order to teach our children the power of LOVE I think the best way to do that is through SERVICE! In short this book is about PAYING IT FORWARD.

Here is a quick synopsis of the book:

 Can one good deed from one ordinary girl change the world? 

It can when she’s Ordinary Mary — an ordinary girl from an ordinary school, on her way to her ordinary house — who stumbles upon ordinary blueberries. When she decides to pick them for her neighbor, Mrs. Bishop, she starts a chain reaction that multiplies around the world. Mrs. Bishop makes blueberry muffins and gives them to her paperboy and four others — one of whom is Mr. Stevens, who then helps five different people with their luggage — one of whom is Maria, who then helps five people — including a man named Joseph who didn’t have enough money for his groceries — and so on, until the deed touches every single person on the planet and finally comes back to Mary.

HOW TO SPREAD THE LOVE

1. Read this book and discuss it with your kids (ages 3-12).

2.  Next decide on THREE good deeds that you can do that show your LOVE for someone else. The goal is to have your children come up with their very own deeds. 

3.Next write these deeds down and make it a goal to complete these deeds by Valentine's Day. It is important to stress that the moral of the story is when you do one good thing for someone else, it is likely that it will spread. Many life lessons can be taught using this book. 

4. Then on Valentine's Day night celebrate your good deeds by having a little celebration of love. (More ideas for V.Day night to come!)