Teacher Gifts

I have been asked to make a list of my favorite teacher gifts to receive around the holidays. Interestingly enough, this topic was brought up in the teacher's room recently. And let me tell you we are all different. One liked homemade gifts, another hated homemade gifts; one liked gift cards, another said they would rather get a gift certificate for a manicure.

So my best advice to those of your buying teacher gifts - know your teacher! I know it's hard - still fairly early in the school year to really know them. Take a look next time you are in your child's classroom - is she/he a coffee drinker, collect anything? Ask your child if Teacher has mentioned anything they like. One year I had a little girl bring me a very cute decorated bucket with a big red bow, and inside the bucket were mini peanut butter cups (they are my favorite!). That was a great gift because it showed me a)how much that student knew about me and b) she liked me so much that she really thought about me when mom asked her what to get for me.

Of course, I now have the task of buying teacher gifts too. When I asked CJ what his teacher talked about - anything she loves he said, "She loves me!" Too cute:) When I told him that I was trying to figure out what to buy her for Christmas he said, "I'll ask her." :) That should be an interesting conversation!

What I have decided to do is make clipboards. I got one a few years ago and I love it. Once I finish them I will post pictures. I will also attach a gift card of some sort - that's the part we need to figure out. I thought about trying to come up some sort of questionnaire for CJ to ask his teacher - favorite place to shop, drink coffee, read, etc. But I can't decide how I would feel about it as a teacher. So we'll see.

Then there's the question of who do you buy for - CJ has his first grade teacher, special ed teacher, speech teacher, OT, school psychologist, social worker, gym teacher, art teacher, music teacher, librarian, nurse (whom he sees often and loves), Principal, assistant principle, secretaries, Spanish teacher, cafeteria helpers, crossing guard....I think that's the list. Then there's all those outside therapist that works with him! What a list! The way I look at it, the specials teachers (gym, music, etc.) often get overlooked at the holidays so they will each get a little something. The special ed team work very hard with CJ often in a small group or one to one - so they will get each get something. Most on this list will get some homemade treats.

Here are my favorite teacher gifts from over the years:

- the above mentioned gift - bucket of peanut butter cups
- gift cards - coffee, target ,Barnes and Noble
- stationary
- homemade angel - yes she goes on top of my tree every year - I will always remember the child and family that gave her to me
- the year we moved into our home I received a lot of Home Depot gift cards -
- the clipboard (decorated by the mom), it has my name on it and it's just so cute!

I hope I have been somewhat helpful to all of you buying teacher gifts this year:) I'm off to start decorating clipboards!

Thanksgiving 2010

Happ Thanksgiving everyone! As you know we do our Thanksgiving tomorrow. But we do have our own Mama Teacher Household traditions.

The parade of course is one:) This might be the first year that CJ is so excited about the parade. He has watched in the past, but he seems more excited about it this year. As I type he is excitedly telling me about all the balloons he sees:) My favorite part is the singing and dancing at the beginning from Broadway shows.

Breakfast has now become a tradition - we have our big dinner tomorrow - but today is big breakfast. Homemade biscuits and sausage gravy. Yum:) Sorry Mommy hungry I don't really have a recipe - it's all by eye and taste - ground sausage, flour, milk and pepper. It was delicious!

CJ has declared it a stay in all PJs all day. I think that's a great tradition:) It is also Mommy and CJ Thanksgiving he says. We will cook pies and cookies for tomorrow. Play games. Maybe a craft project. We'll see what the day brings.

Rock On

My Boys rockin' out!!!