gift ideas

I know school is already out for many of you, but here in RVA we still have two more weeks. Only two more weeks until I get to spend every waking minute with my precious children. Oh joy….Oh rapture. That got me thinking about the wonderfully patient individuals who have been handling them all school year. God bless those teachers, those administrators, and don’t even get me started on what those poor bus drivers have to endure. We definitely can’t forget them.

If you want to thank those people who have managed to make it through the entire school year without running out screaming, a feat I’m not sure I’ll be able to match in just the first week at home with my kids, here are some great gift ideas that they will actually appreciate.

Truth.

Creative Gift Card Gifts- Teachers love gift cards. We all know this. However, for some, a gift card can feel impersonal. Change that by doing one of the following:

• Add to Their Classroom Library– Find a book that is age-appropriate for the grade they teach. On the inside cover, tape a gift card of your choice and on the back cover have your student write their teacher a sweet note or draw them a picture and sign their name.
• Fill Up Their Cup– Buy an inexpensive water bottle, large cup or mason jar and place the gift card in the center of it. Next add some things you either know your child’s teacher likes or things most people like such as hershey kisses, chapstick, a small tube of sunscreen, nail polish, gum, etc. Finish it off with some ribbon or a label with your child’s name.
• Supply Them with Supplies– Visit the Dollar Tree for inexpensive school supplies. Teachers always need extras! Put them all in a plastic bin or basket, tie a ribbon around it and tape the gift card on the top.
• Don’t Forget the Bus Driver– Use these easy printables to personalize your bus driver’s gift card gift or use these gift tags to add a more personal touch to any gift you plan to give them. My kids have two different bus drivers so I’ll be making them chocolate chip cookies.

Get Them Summer-Ready– Stop at Five Below and purchase a beach bag and beach towel and then add in a few of these other ideas: magazines, a beach read, sunglasses, sunscreen, protein bars, a water bottle, lip balm. If you want to get fancy you can attach one of these free printables to the bag from Havalah at Sisters, What.

Write a Note From the Heart– It’s been awhile since I’ve been teaching, but I still remember the sweet note that one of my students’ mothers wrote to me at the end of the school year eleven years ago. (OMG, that adorable first-grader is graduating from high school! Holy shit, I’m old!) Hearing how I’d helped them get through a particularly tough year was the highest praise and best gift I’d ever received. Teachers don’t go into the profession for the glamour and money, they do it because they want to make a difference. Telling them that they did a great job gives them a reason to keep on going!

Make Them a Teacher/Bus Driver Emergency Kit– I love this idea from Jessica at Timeout With Mom. This sweet kit contains everything they could need from extra deodorant to gum to wrinkle releaser.

I’m here to tell you that, at the end of the day, teachers aren’t going to care about the cutesy presentation and the rhyming, personalized gift tags. They will appreciate that you thought of them. There really isn’t a need to overthink it.

If you’ll be home with your kids all summer, like me, may the force be with you! I’ll be posting next week on setting up a summer schedule that will help kids stay on a routine while still having lots of fun.

♥ Erin

It’s May and it’s finally feeling like spring! I don’t know about you all, but Mother’s Day has really snuck up on me this year. I usually like to get something for my mom and my mother-in-law to go along with a homemade card or note from the kids. I got this cute idea from Amy at the aptly named, Idea Room, but wrote my own poem. My mother-in-law loves to bake and cook with my kids. She’s great at making plans for pizza nights and cookie nights with them whenever they sleep over so I thought this personal, but practical gift would be perfect.

Almost everything you need for the craft can be purchased at the Dollar Tree: oven mitt, sponge, string. Buy the smallest jar of white and red fabric paint you can find. I got mine at Michaels for under $5. The fabric paint will keep the handprint on the oven mitt, even if it needs to be washed.

Materials Needed:

• Oven Mitt
• Fabric Paint (I used red and white.)
• Sponge or Foam Brush
• Yarn or String
• Single Hole Punch
• Printable Mother’s Day Gift Tag (printable below)

MOTHERS DAY OVEN MITT INSTRUCTIONS from the Idea Room

1. Take your oven mitt and place it on a flat surface.:
2. Take your child’s hand and paint a little fabric paint on the palm of their hand with a foam brush. Don’t do a lot of paint. If you paint it on so that it isn’t too thick you will get a little more definition of the hand rather than a large glob of paint. You may want to practice on a piece of paper first.
3. Take the child’s hand and hold it steady with your own two hands and gently press it onto the fabric making sure that the entire hand is pressed on the oven mitt.
4. Wash your child’s hand and then let the paint dry. If there are a few areas that did not get enough paint, you can take a small paint brush and touch up those areas.
5. Take the red paint and paint a heart over the child’s palm print.
6. Print out the free Mother’s Day Poem on some white card stock and attach it with some yarn or string.

Find the free printable Mother’s Day Poem here. When you go to print it you can change the printing size from 100% if it will print to big.

Happy Mother’s Day!

♥ Erin

Hey Parents, if you’re stumped on what to get your kids’ teachers this year, I got you covered. After living with teachers my entire life and then becoming one myself, I’m sort of an expert on the subject. There are tons of #1 teacher ornaments, mugs and knick-knacks out there, not to mention all of the apple-themed gifts. Also, now that we live in the world of Pinterest, there is also shit like this:

I mean, who has the time?

And this:

Are you frickin’ kiddin’ me?

But before you break out the glue gun and glitter, please take a minute to think it through. Imagine a first year teacher with 18 kids in his or her classroom. Now imagine if each year, for his or her first five years of teaching, half of those kids gifted the teacher ornaments for Christmas. That’s already 45 ornaments! My mom taught elementary school for over thirty years. Just sit back and try to imagine the sheer volume of knick knacks and tchotchkes! Half of our Christmas ornaments were adorned with apples, for God’s sake! It was overwhelming!

This year, please put down that ornament and show your appreciation for your child’s teacher with a gift that they will appreciate as well.

Four Gifts Teachers Love To Get:

1.) Gift cards- This may seem impersonal, but you know what, the teacher isn’t a friend or relative so impersonal is ok! To make it more personal you can find out about their interests and then get a gift card tailored to them. Our school has teachers fill out a form like this one at the beginning of the year to help with gift ideas. Last year, I used these funny gift tags, and they were a big hit.

2.) Personal Notes From You or Your Child- Eleven years ago, when I was in my second year of teaching, one of my parents wrote me a short note telling me how much I helped her son that year. I teared up when I read it, and I still have it. Teachers don’t go into education for the glamour or the money, and it’s often a pretty thankless job day after day. Telling him or her how important they are and what a difference they’ve made can really make a teacher’s day.

3.) Gifts for the classroom– Ask the teacher what they need the most right now and then go out and purchase those things. Teachers are often going out and buying school supplies with their own money. You can save their money and their valuable time by taking care of this for them.

4.) Edible Gifts– My mom got a delicious cranberry loaf every Christmas, and I looked forward to eating that thing pretty much all year! If you have something special that you love to make; cookies, fudge, toffee, etc. that’s something special that you can share with the teachers. You can also use the list I posted above to find out your teacher’s favorite foods and provide them a basket with three or four of those favorites. Be sure to check for any allergies or sugar restrictions.

Happy Holidays and Happy Gifting!

♥ Erin