1m2aSandbox

I’ve spent a couple days this week talking about teacher gifts so feel free to catch up before you start reading today. But if you’re already caught up, let’s dive in – to my own ideas for what to give teachers as a “thank you” for putting up with your kid –and, let’s face it, you – for a year.

First off, think about who you want to remember with a little something. For me, it’s the people I see every day, whose paths I regularly cross as my daughters go about their school lives. So if you’ve never had a one-on-one meeting with your school principal and can only vaguely remember what she looks like, then don’t worry about a personal gift; perhaps something small for the whole office staff to share would be great.

Monday I ranted (a teensy bit) about end-of-year teacher gifts, and how they’re often stressful – and unnecessarily so.

Today I’m here to make some suggestions.

I spoke with a few friends, all of whom are teachers in the public school system, to get their input on this thing. Here’s what they had to say:

It’s that time of year again – when the weather warms up and the days grow longer and everyone is thinking of one thing:

Time to get cracking on the teacher gifts.

Of course, the time to get cracking was a few weeks ago – now we’re in crunch mode. But I’ve been working on them for a couple weeks here, and have a few things to say.

And some suggestions for gifts.

I’ve talked many times about how parenting is continuously building fences around our children, only to knock them down and re-build them a few feet further out, over and over and over again.

I feel like I’ve done a lot of re-positioning lately.

Maddie’s becoming aware of her independence in new ways, and is tentatively testing it out in different situations. She’ll often shyly ask if she can do something herself – and then move forward hesitantly, but without looking back. And when she’s finished, she glows with triumph -and skips happily back to nestle in my arms.