Teacher Holiday Gift

From an ex-kindergarten teacher...kudos on the "less knick-knacky" gifts. So many students over the years, so many of those type gifts, you run out of places to put them. Practical gifts are definitely appreciated. Is there a "teacher store" near you? A gift cert there would be nice. For the ESE and Guidance, maybe a small gift card (seriously, only needs to be $5) to a starbucks or subway that is near the school?

As for the daycare...that is tough when there are numerous teachers. I am feeling that with my son too. There wasn't a "room mom" to take charge. I ended up getting them some foaming AB hand soap from Bath & Body Works. I figure they wash their hands so often it might be nice to have some nice smelling stuff to stay healthy this winter! My son is there only 2hrs each Friday so I only spend about $5 per teacher (3). If he were there full time, I would have done more...I don't think $30 is too outrageous to be split among 3 teachers. Even with the newer ones... Is there a "lead teacher"? You could always do something on your own and get the "lead" teacher a little more and the "assistants" a little smaller items.

I think anything is appreciated. I have said before on here that I once received a worn ornament from a student who was homeless. She saw other children bringing me gifts and she wanted to bring me something so that is what she came up with. I kept it in my desk for a few years as a reminder that gifts do not have to be extravagant to matter - and now, even though my few years of teaching are behind me, I still hang it on my tree as a reminder of the true meaning of the season... :-)

Kindergarten teachers always need supplies. Many of them spend money out of their own pockets to supplement what they have in the classroom. You could ask your son's teacher what she runs out of most and get her a bunch of that. My daughter's teacher is forever running out of the jumbo sized paper clips, tissue boxes and Clorox wipes for cleaning up the tables. I got her a box of paperclips (the jumbo size she always runs out of) and a Costco sized thing of tissues for the class as her practical gift, then cross stitched her a little hand made Christmas ornament from craft stuff I already had around the house. (I did the ornament only because I know she sets up a little fake tree in her classroom during the month of December and it was looking a little bare.)

I knew that she loves practical gifts, they send her over the moon. It's one less thing she has to buy, which means more cash for her to do whatever she wants with. I overheard her talking to another mom about it so I lucked out on that one. I don't think I spent more than $15.

You'll have to figure out what would work for your particular teacher, but most of them would love gifts that are more practical and less knick-nacky.

For the school teachers, a nice card and maybe a $10 Target gift card.

For the daycare workers, make a basket of single wrapped candies for the whole group.

A note telling the kinder teacher that she deserves diamonds would be awesome. As a teacher, I can assure you we love supplies!

$5 Starbucks gift cards each. Easy, quick, done.

My son was in kindergarten last year and what we did for the daycare and aftercare teachers was this:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/chocolate-spoons/df5b...

We used red and green colored plastic spoons from Party City and bought coffee mugs that were Christmasy at the Dollar Store. I bought cellophane party bags and some ribbon to package them up. They looked beautiful and we got lots of thanks for them. A few of the daycare teachers have already asked if we are doing them again this year. (Had found another recipe to try but might anyway - this was easy!)

I think my total cost for around 15 gifts last year was maybe $30 and some wonderful quality time with my son. Really, we had such a good time that I wouldn't dream of doing something other than homemade with him this year!