My First Foray into Teacher Gifts

I've never really been much for making - or even purchasing - teacher gifts.  Not that teachers don't deserve gifts.  Because they really, really, really do.  I know from experience, dude.  They don't get paid enough to put up with the crap they have to deal with. 

Don't get me wrong; I loved the kids I taught.  I loved the subject I taught.  But once I figured it out - with making lesson plans, grading, and hours in the classroom, I was making only $5 an hour.  And I had to deal with angry parents marching into my classroom and yelling at me in front of my class, a principal who wasn't my "pal" (that spelling trick - that principal is your "pal" - really was NOT true in my experience), and kids who routinely said the F word to me.  I probably had to kick five kids out of my classroom every class period for swearing, running around, throwing stuff repeatedly...  I had one kid who thought it would be a fun idea to put Icy Hot on his nads (underneath his desk, where nobody could see) in the middle of my class.  True story.  The emergent yelling, writhing, and tears streaming down his face caused a bit of a disruption during our reading of The Diary of Anne Frank.

Honestly, I think that anyone who teaches school deserves to go straight to the Celestial Kingdom.  A free pass.  No matter what.

Anyyyyywwaaayyys...  teachers do deserve special gifts. But I'm also a really busy and stressed-out mom, so I've never done it before.  However, this Sadie girl of mine is really into it.  Her teacher's birthday was in early December, and Sadie really, really wanted to make something for her.  I saw some stuff on super-sale at a craft store, so I took Sades with me there.  I thought we could buy some pre-made jewelery or something, but Sadie insisted on creating a flower arrangement.  Kind of a weird choice for a teacher gift, but she was set on it.  And she was really in love with it:

I remember it was all I could do at the time to go to the craft store with her, buy the flowers, come home, put the thing together, and then go lie down.  *Shivers* Ugh.  I have surgery PTSD.

I have many kinds of PTSD.  Surgery PTSD, China PTSD, driving Ben's truck PTSD, bad ski boot PTSD...

So Sadie decided she really wanted to give a gift to Mrs. H for Valentine's Day.  I promised her I would look through my old Close to My Heart Idea Books while she was at school.  I dog-eared several pages of things I thought would be cute, and Sadie chose a small wooden gift box, the lid decorated with paper, stamps, ribbon, the works.

So I went to the craft store (feeling soooo much better this time) and fell in love with some paper and bought it.  They had little wooden boxes for $2 each.  I bought three.  I figured that, if I was making one for Sadie's teacher, I might as well make one for Micah's teacher and Dylan's teacher, too.  (And then I could use the leftover paper for cards.  Cha-ching!)

Here's how they turned out - flippin' cute:

Could you just die??

 Quite obviously, my favorite one is the one with the chevron print.

My dear friend, Megs, has this amazing thing called a Silhouette, that can cut out ANYTHING YOU WANT.  I don't really understand how it works.  Basically, it's magic.  She cut the grey scalloped picture frame-type thing and also the letters to spell "heart."  Amazing. I was going to be all ancient and use scalloped scissors, a small hole punch, stamp out "heart" and then painstakingly cut out each letter...  This Silhouette thing makes things looks so much more crisp and professional.   And cuts your time in half.  I'm a fan.

We bought chocolates to put in each box:

Micah was having a really hard time letting go of his box to give to his teacher, Miss Karla, today.  He wanted that thing all to himself.  A container to put candy in?  And then store other things in later?  A really pretty container?  This is what his dreams are made of.  But he took it like a man and gave it to her today.  He wants me to make him a Valentine's Day box now, but honestly, I don't know if I have the energy... :)