Teacher Gifts 2012

It is that time of year.  Again.  Ginger finished preschool last week, and I'm not ashamed to say I cried like a little girl - seriously, bawled - at the end-of-year music program.  Saying goodbye to her tiny two-year window of preschooldom was painful, a pain whose only alleviation was the giddy little thrill of putting together a year-end gift for her amazing teacher.

Teacher appreciation week was last month, and our class pooled contributions for a generous restaurant gift certificate for her and the school's music teacher, so our year-end gift was simple.  I'll just let you know now, this post holds no new ideas, just a rehashing of former ones I've posted - ain't broke, don't fix it.  It's just a good way for me to keep track of who we've given what, when.

And while I was on the teacher gift vein, I've ordered/bought/planned the ones for Hazel's teachers, too, even though she still has a few weeks.  Hazel has three teachers - a man and a woman that job share as her 1st grade teacher, and a wonderful grandmotherly full-time teacher's aide.  So here's what we're doing.

For Ginger's preschool teacher AND Hazel's woman teacher - a copy of Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman, a personalized "Ex Libris" stamp, and two different colors of archival quality ink pads.  I ordered the stamps from Etsy - there are a lot of cool ones on there!  This one for Ginger's teacher:

And this one for Hazel's:

For Hazel's man teacher, you have to know he has two children under 2, and the poor man is a walking zombie of sleep deprivation, though he has still managed to teach my 7-year-old to read fluently this year so I'm not complaining.  It's just that every time I talk to him he asks, "How old is Poppy again?" followed by a recent anecdote of extreme parenting that he doesn't remember he already told me last time.  But he's always got a smile on his face, and Hazel adores him.  So, keeping the family orientation of his life in mind, I'm sticking with the no-failer - my favorite ice pops book (or maybe I'll try this one) and a set of star-shaped popsicle molds.  Take a load off this summer, Mr. B.

And for Hazel's teacher aide, who has put up with heaven-knows-what this year, I'm taking an idea from a comment on last year's post.  When we went strawberry-picking last Saturday at Homestead Farm, I stopped into their farm stand for a bag of buttermilk pancake mix and a jar of peach melba preserves.  I hope she can have some leisurely breakfasts this summer on us.

Finally, that picture at the top of this post?  It came attached to a funny - and practical - article I found about teacher gifts here.  It's nice to know I'm at least not on the wrong track.