Only a few weeks of the school year left to go and before proclaiming we made it – it’s time to prepare.
It’s time to think about end of the year gifts to teachers. The furthest I have gotten is thinking about gifts – a small gesture to say thank you. Thinking about it and possibly checking Pinterest.
I feel like a gigantic thank you to Oliver’s preschool teachers just will not be enough.
He has really grown the last seven months. I don’t want to take any credit away from five-year-old Oliver. He did do a lot to get there – like say ‘yes, I will go to school today’ after some mornings of going no he would not go. Obviously not a morning person, but neither am I without the first cup of coffee.
But yes, Oliver has grown. He sits down and colors. He wants to color. He never wanted to color in the past. “Do you want to color and draw with brother and I,” I would ask and just receive a “meh” back.
But now, he will grab a coloring book or his sketchbook stacked with plain white paper and sit down and create.
Oliver writes his name. He asks how to spell words so he can practice writing his letters.
The biggest is reading at night which I normally did every night with the boys. Mike has been reading with the boys at night, as least the last few months. I began the year with a upper respiratory infection and I just couldn’t read out loud as much. So, the boys recruited dad. Now they have their own special routine. Part of the routine, Mike will read a page. Then, Jonathan reads a page and it continues. Within the last week, Oliver has joined in and is reading.
He’s more sociable. He talks to his classmates after school is done. When we are waiting for brother to get out of school, he plays with classmates also waiting for siblings.
Last week he also started doing something else. Sometimes both of the boys or just Oliver is with me at games – it’s just how the schedule works on some day. While we were walking to take some photos at a game the “Star-Spangled Banner” began to play. He stopped, held his hand over his heart and stood still for the duration of the song. If you had seen how wiggly he had been in the past, you would have been pretty amazed and proud as well.
He’s picked up on good habits. And, why yes he has picked up on bad habits as well. But those don’t need to be discussed. They are discussed enough with him at home.
But yes, just a thank you to his two teachers for helping Oliver along his journey. I might not even go on Pinterest and go down that rabbit hole. I will probably just get a couple of gift cards from local places. But that leads to another rabbit hole of what restaurants, what cuisine do they like. Maybe coffee places? A lot have sprung up in our town lately – at least there were never this many coffee places when I needed them. But then do they like coffee. There you have it – I jumped down the rabbit hole and I can’t climb out.
Maybe some school spirit gear or a gift card to the athletic boosters store in town… so many options and not a lot of time.
I have seen the question floated around social media a few times – is a gift needed? I believe it’s up to the person. I do it as a thank you, treat yourself. I grew up watching my mom gift teachers, some staff and bus drivers.
As for Jonathan, he finishes a few weeks after Oliver is done. I have more time for his teacher. Plus, our school’s PTO had teachers and staff fill out a favorites sheet which has been really helpful the last few years for holidays and end of the year.
Plus, I just picked up a few gift cards for raffles to be given at the end of this week’s appreciation week. I hadn’t signed up for any food and most of the food donations were filled. But there were two slots left for raffle gift cards. I claimed the spot once I found out one of the newest businesses had gift cards.
In the end I spent more because of course I bought two more books – in case by to be read pile needed to be a little tower. The bookstore had one copy of Matthew Perry’s memoir left and it was sitting right next to a Erik Larson book, which was in paperback and I do enjoy paperback.
Did I need two more books? Well, that’s up for debate. Plus, I walked into the bookstore at the inbetween book stage – just finished a book and had not completely committed to the next book. I did start a nonfiction, but the reading was going slow. I want to try to retain as much as the historical knowledge and really enjoy the research the author put into it. So might as well buy two more nonfiction books. But, I did support my sister and made her an empty spot for her to fill on the shelf after I left.