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So I'm thinking salt dough ornaments painted with glitter and a $5 gift card to bookstore or coffee shop for all the teachers. (we have 4 so it's a lot to do $10 each) Plus a nice homemade card with a personal note from me.
But DS wants to give something to his classmates - what the heck do I do for that?
Any other ideas for teachers too? I'd like to stay under $25 each. Thought about homemade note cards but wondering how expensive that might be?
Hmmmm....I am glad you brought that up, because I had honestly forgot about the daycare providers. I'm interested in seeing what others are doing.
I am thinking of putting together a small gift hamper for all the teachers to share, because even though there are two main teachers in his room, there are other teachers who assist, that Ronin is close to, the director who helps out in the rooms etc. The issue is they get so many gift baskets as well, but I am just thinking something small with a few snacks because they all do so much for the kids, one teacher I constantly see at the shops on her weekends looking for new things for the rooms.
Seeing as Teagan's at a Jewish daycare, I can get away with not giving gifts :). That doesn't mean I don't want to. I think I might find a little something cheap ($5) at the Street Fair this weekend and give them to her two teachers as Holiday gifts next week (it being Hanukkah and all). No gifts for T's classmates. I'd do food if I were going to do anything. Would you want your kids coming home with a bunch of cheap crap? No. Would you want them bringing home cookies. Uhhh, YES! I remember in elementary school that we did a grab bag. Each kid brought in ONE thing and threw it into the grab bag. I like that idea and would encourage it.
Last year I got the 3 full time ladies a Thirty-One bag with their name on it. And Nice candles for the other 5 part time ladies.
I have never done the whole classroom thing though.
Lucas is in a home daycare so I give my provider and her family a gift certificate to go out for dinner. I think I might send cookies with him Christmas eve for the kids. there are no allergies so it's all good not sure if that would work at a center or classroom.
Great idea for kid gift that I give each year to my students but could work as a gift FROM a student.
Scholastic.com, like the book clubs fliers they pass out in school, sells $1 books each month. If you order now they will arrive before Christmas. I'm looking at the ones we have right now and some of the dollar ones are "Gingerbread Mouse", "Froggy Gets Dressed", and "The Gingerbread Kid Goes to School".
oh shoot Joy! That's a great idea but of course our Scholastic order was already placed! It's also a tad expensive for me to spend $1 on each kid since there are 18 kids in E's class and 8 in O's class. Money is fairly tight around here especially this time of year. I love the Scholastic books though!
I honestly never thought to give the classmates anything but E was asking if we could. Since I want to encourage generosity I am partial to doing something. So I think I'll go with Cookies/candy bags for them since I can manage that cheaply! We have a nut free facility and E is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts so I'd never send in something with nuts. I wonder if any of the kids are lactose sensitive though? I'll ask the teachers tomorrow.
Do you all do anything for the community - volunteering a soup kitchen, Toys for Tots type stuff with your kiddos yet? I'm wondering if I should start something that involves at least E this year since I think he could understand it now. hmmmmm
I really wanted to take Lucas to pick out a toy to donate, but havn't gotten around to it yet.
I gave Addy's teachers Holiday gifts last year, even though it's a Jewish Temple--not all the teachers are even Jewish anyway, and it's really just an end of year "thank you for taking care of my child" acknowledgement. In fact, I was all "Uh...happy...um...holdiays?" when I gave it to her and she loud-whispered "It's okay...you can say Merry Christmas!" :lol:
That said, DH is a teacher, and as sweet as the thoughts behind them are, I cannot tell you how annoying the million silly ornaments and terrible-for-you "treats" are...most of it ends up in the trash or goodwill box in the end, because it is TOO MUCH. You know what he really appreciates and uses? GIFT CARDS. So that's what we give too :) Last year we got Addy's teacher a gift card to our local independent bookstore, figuring she could use that for either herself OR the classroom, whatever she wanted, and it supported a local business. Wins all around. She seemed very excited about it. I think we'll probably do something similar this year.
For classmates, Mel, I agree I wouldn't normally do anything but if he's asking then little treat bags with like two pieces of candy and a tiny toy or something are probably just fine.
Charity stuff I definitely want to involve her in, but I think she's a little too young to grasp it still. Maybe next year.