1. Trading Hands. Trace and cut out your child's hand and your own hand onto some stiff card stock or cardboard. Give your hand to your child to decorate while you are busy decorating their hand. Use stickers, crayons, markers, etc.--anything that helps you to show how much you love that person. Then punch a hole in the palm part of the hand and loop some twine, yarn, or string through the hole. Tie your child's hand ( the one you decorated) onto their backpack and hang your hand somewhere in your home or office as a reminder of that love. You both have kissing hands to help you through the day.
2. Kissing Hand Cookies. Make sugar cookies and use a hand cookie cutter as your shape. You can either cut a small heart out of the center of the dough or just decorate with frosting and sprinkles once they are baked. Remember to send one in your child's lunch the next day with a special love note from you.
In case you are not yet familiar with this delightful book, here is a review from Publishers Weekly for The Kissing Hand:
In her foreword to Penn's sugary tale about Chester, a young raccoon who would rather stay at home than go to school, Jean Kennedy Smith notes that the story is "for any child who confronts a difficult situation, and for the child within each of us who sometimes needs reassurance." Its obvious message is delivered by Mrs. Raccoon, who tells her son that "I know a wonderful secret that will make your nights at school seem as warm and cozy as your days at home." She then kisses his palm, and Chester feels the kiss "rush from his hand, up his arm, and into his heart." Whenever he gets lonely, she advises, he is to press his hand to his cheek and "that very kiss will jump to your face and fill you with toasty warm thoughts." As it may for youngsters in comparable situations, this "secret" works for Chester, who in turn kisses his mother's palm so that she, too, will be reassured.
Then add sandbox toys and a large tablecloth and voilà! A rice box. 
I used to put it either outside on the patio or in the kitchen. When the kids are finished, you just move the rice box, pick up the four corners of the tablecloth and let the rogue pieces of rice fall to the center of it, and then dump it back into the rice box. Put the top back on and you're done! Well, okay, unless your kids threw rice around and then you may need to do a little sweeping. But my kids used to spend hours picking every jewel out of the rice, putting them in the bucket, and pouring them back into the rice. Over and over. This is a great winter-time activity when they can't get outside much, or a great summertime activity when it is too hot to be running around outside!
Hang on to that plastic wipe container with the flip top lid next time the wipes have run out. Collect all those junk mail pretend credit cards and plastic yogurt cup lids. Let your little one practice hand-eye coordination by inserting the cards and lids into the slot on the top of the wipe container. Once the stack has run out, open the container and dump them out for another round of fun. It seems really simple, but you'd be amazed at how they enjoy it. Plus it's free!
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