I have serious issues with the idea of teacher gifts. I don't even remember buying my teachers gifts when I was at school. In fact im pretty sure when I left college I just went to the pub and brought my teachers a round of drinks.
Anyway at Lil Mans nursery some of the mums were starting to trot out the gifts (one per teacher I might add, and there's like four of them) and whilst part of me thinks yes they do a lovely job of looking after my baby boy bu they also get paid for it?
Yeah I know I'm mean but I don't remember anyone getting me a worlds best barmaid mug.
So I decided the best way to not feel like a massive cow who doesn't appreciate them was to make something for the nursery. So I decided to embroider some cushion covers with some of mine and lil mans favourite book quotes.
We opted for winnie the pooh "as soon as I saw you I knew an adventure was going to happen"
"There's no such thing as a gruffalo?"
and Dr Seuss "You're off to great places! Today is your day, your mountain is waiting so..... get on your way!"
It kind of turned out as a win win! I got to give a gift but I didn't have to buy anything!
I handed them over this morning and I think they went down well!!!
In other news boy have we been busy!!!
Thursday, I had Lil mans end of year assembly [He didn't participate apart from to say his one line, In his defence he was tired but still!]
Friday, we went to see Rikkis Grandad because he'd had a knee op, and then I went out with my friends because one of them is leaving to teach in Thailand. I had a lovely night out and wore my tartan pencil skirt although I did have to let it out a bit and reinforce the side seams because I had visions of them splitting when I sat down!
Saturday , we were suppose to be at a BBQ but the bad weather meant it was cancelled! which was actually pretty lucky for me as I was suffering from a Mumover![Mumover- When you wake up the morning after a night of not drinking but feel like a big bag of dying because you've stayed up past 11.00pm]
Sunday, the boys went to the football and I stayed in and watched movies with Rikkis Grandad. Which was lovely until I banged my head on the bathroom cabinet and had to spend an hour with a bag of peas on my head [Yes I had a massive lump on my head and fully sulked because I hurt myself! And I had a massive headache to boot!] We did manage to fix my hand crank sewing machine between us though [more on that another day!]
Monday, went to finalise some wedding stuff! Which was lovely, and the venue is still the absolute bomb!
Tuesday, went to the zoo! I got sunburn! [Review of zoo will be coming this week!]
Wednesday, Rikki went to help his brother move and I looked after my two nephews with Rikki's Nan and Grandad [note: Children do not like warm weather it makes them grouchy!]
and today? well today I'm going to try and put my house in some sort of order!
And them maybe sit down and have a little rest!!!
Much Love
Frankie
xxx
What a busy week you have had. I agree with you about teacher gifts. Where did that come from? It's an added pressure for people who don't have a lot of money or are as creative as you. I worked in schools for many years, as a teacher and also as a Bursar and the teachers would get chocolates and smellies but they didn't expect pressies or even want them. My husband works in FE and they didn't give presents then, which was fine but he did appreciate it when one of his students said "thank you" - much better.
ReplyDeleteBTW - how did I miss 'wedding plans'?
Are you getting married Frankie?
Please tell all.
It seems to be one of those things that just spirals, it will go from chocolates to more expensive gifts pretty rapidly!
DeleteYes we are getting married! There will be lots of diys after the day! But I haven't made my own dress!!!
X
Oh Frankie.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been following your blog for a while (how do you get so much done?). But this post, kind of bothered me. If I may say so, the practice of giving teacher gifts isn’t for the teachers.
In my first year of teaching, I received 4 mugs. Now I like tea, but why would I need so many mugs? Of course I made sure to cycle them through so that the children who gave them to me would see me using their gift. I use the impractical stationery holders displayed on my desk for the same reason. Plenty of teacher gifts aren’t really useful or wanted. My mother (also a teacher) used to pass things on to older relatives so that they could afford to give gifts. The gifts themselves don’t matter to us.
But the gesture means a great deal. The best stuff is the stuff the kid has been involved in making. I’d take a handmade card from a child over anything their parents could make or buy. Because it’s a symbol. In the same way that we ask the class to write thankyou cards to the person who guided our group at the museum, or brought the sheep in to school for us to see. To say thank you, and to say that this experience meant something to me.
Trust me, we are far more invested in your kid, than any barmaid is invested in her patrons. As crazy as it may seem, we will miss your kid when they move to the next class. And we will remember them. My older teacher friends have photographs from decades back, and speak fondly of the children in the photos even now.
If you feel obliged to give something, that sense of obligation comes from competing with other parents. If you want to instil appreciation for others in your children, sit down with your child, talk about what a great year they’ve had, and get them to draw their teacher a picture. Not only will their teacher appreciate that more, but your child will have the experience of expressing gratitude. And developing a sense of gratitude and appreciation for others is worth more than all the mugs, novelty pencil holders and ornaments in the world.
Oh I'm sorry my post bothered you.
DeleteIm sure my feeling are just because he has several members of staff and we haven't felt particularly connected to any of them, I'm sure when he starts real school and has one teacher rather than 4 members of staff we will feel differently.
He did help me choose which quotes to put of and I think they liked the gifts, and today was his last day and he gave them all hugs and said thankyou.
We thought that the gift for the nursery was a nice way of giving something without being too specific (especially as he isn't particularly close with any of them)
Again I'm sorry if my post upset you, it's lovely that you have such fond memories of the children you taught
Frankie
If this makes you feel better Frankie, I used to find it a bit strange when people gave me gifts as a teacher. I liked a little letter written by the child or a note in a card if you had gone above and beyond for a child but I was always really embarrassed. I always buy a story book from the works now for the children to donate to the reading corner in the class they are leaving. I also once made drawstring bags for teachers to put maths things in like shapes/a game which the box had broken on etc. They were grateful for those. Ps. The best pressie I had once was a slab of grolsch from one parent but I don't know what that said about me, I was 28 at the time!!! Jo x
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what grolsh is! But if you liked it thats great! It sounds like letters and cards are a great way to go! I think I'd find it very overwhelming to receive so many gifts from kids! I'd rather they brought themselves a toy! X
DeleteI think your hand embroidered cushions are fab, and I'm sure they loved them. I've always felt an awkwardness at the end of term and we usually do a very small box of chocolates as never really knew what to give, a couple times someone extra organised would say we all need to put money in and buy something big, again I'm not sure this is right??? It was interesting to read Zoe's thoughts and realise now that making a card would have been better (although can't see my 13/15&17 yr olds doing this) and more thoughtful. hope your head is feeling better.
ReplyDeleteMy head is much better thankyou! I think they liked the cushions, it was hard because of how many of them there are.i felt it was better to do something for the room rather than the individuals. I dint really like the idea of buying a large present either. Although saying that we did buy our head of year in high school a whole year gift when she retired but she was the most wonderful woman and friend I have ever known and we had had her support for over 5 years! I guess a lot depends on your connection to the teacher
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