Saturday, August 25, 2012

Back to the grind of school

The other morning, a friend asked me how Molly was doing at Kindergarten. "She's doing really well. She definitely likes it, even if she's exhausted by the end of the day." No joke, the whole day kindergarten is truly exhausting Molly. She turns into an absolute bear by the time dinner rolls around. Apparently, this is pretty common for the start of kindergarten, but it's definitely a challenge in our family. I jokingly told Cory that Molly was purposefully trying to make me not miss her during the day by being on such horrible behavior at the end of the day.

Then, my friend asked me if I gave a present to Molly's teacher on the first day of school. "WHAT?!?!? I was supposed to do that?" Geesh. I was only three days into the school year, and I was already behind. I didn't even think about getting a present for the teacher, but apparently some parents bring them to Back-to-School nights or the first day. We were past both of those already.

Our elementary school is a Title 1 school, which means that it has a lot of lower-income families and wider diversity. I am glad that Molly will be exposed to more diversity, but I also worry that she will get overlooked because she is a good and quiet kid. I worry that kids with more behavior and learning issues will get most of the attention.

So, if a present to her teacher will help keep her in the forefront of the teacher's mind, then by all means, I will do it! I am not above that! Not to mention the fact that Molly's teacher is in charge of my baby girl all day and deserves to be recognized and appreciated for that.

Enter Pinterest. Both the savior and the devil. I found a ton of great ideas, and I talked to my friend Sarah who is a former teacher. She assured me gift cards were always popular, and teachers can always use school supplies. So, I created a "Congratulations on completing the first full week of school" present for Molly's teacher, complete with gift cards to Starbucks and Office Max.

The whole present. I still have my friend's Cricut machine from Charlotte's birthday, so I just used it to make the tag. Thanks, Sarah! :)
What's inside: I got her a cute little notepad with pen, a bunch of pens and pencils, a gift card to Office Max, and a gift card to Starbucks.
This is the adorable Starbucks gift card holder that I made. I actually got the idea and the printable here. It was really easy and turned out really cute (if I must say so myself). I just printed it on a 5x7 picture at Walmart, got a Starbucks drink holder, cut it up and attached it with tape and staples. Then, stuck the card in there and tied a string around the whole thing.

And, because it's me, I had to write something semi-clever to tie it all together. I put this note on the back of the Starbucks card. Then, Molly signed it and drew a picture of her and her teacher. I tried to tie all the presents together with the word play, but may have overreached on some of them. Oh well, I had fun.

I sent the present in with Molly on Friday. When I picked Molly up on Friday afternoon, her teacher told me how much she appreciated the present, and Molly said that her teacher hugged her two times! So, mission "Get on teacher's good side" accomplished.

I may not be able to cook or garden or any of a number of other domestic "motherly" skills, but gosh darn nit, I can gift it up with the best of them!


6 comments:

  1. You go Girl! Very cute and clever.

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  2. You did a GREAT job! Love it all..........

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  3. Wow! Some things are passed down from parents. Your dad got good grades by bribing the teachers also. Hey, whatever it takes.

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  4. As a former teacher, I can say from experience that teachers love gifts like this! It will make her day for sure.

    On a completely different note...are you doing Renew? Hope to see you!

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    1. Good, I'm glad a former teacher approves! :)
      Yup, I'm going to do Renew this year. Are you going to do it? It'll be good to see you!

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