How Do I Show Appreciation for the Teacher Who Will Forever be a Part of My Son's Life?

Here it is, the first of May and for over one month, (yes, that is correct) I have been stressing about Teacher Appreciation Gifts. I mean really spending time every day devoted to thinking, planning, shopping for the perfect teacher appreciation gift. It's not like it is for hours a day but I do it.

The picture is Huntly's (named after my beloved, paternal grandfather) first day of Kindergarten with his BFF from Pre-K, Sebastian and his new teacher, Miss Rhoades. Doesn't she just epitomize what you think of when you think of a Kindergarten teacher?

I wonder how I can truly show my appreciation for the first, true “other woman” who entered my son's life. By “other woman” I mean his first love, in a sense. I am pretty excited that my son got such a cute & smart teacher and that she is so totally worthy of being his first crush. She should be honored (deep down, I believe that she is)!

Also by “other woman” I mean the first woman who has spent just as much time with him as I have. Miss Rhoades  has really played an integral role in his development during this one, short slightly-less-than-a-year time period and I think that she has done a better job than I ever could have, most definitely from the teaching aspect (not that I don't admire all of those who try).

I really think that Miss Rhoades has treated my son like he is her own. At no time during this year did I ever get a hint that she favored one child in her class more than another and I have spent a lot of time  in that classroom. I have three kids and that is hard for me sometimes (I do have the occasional bad mommy day, believe it or not, and sometimes a little favorite occurs). But with 18 children, I cannot imagine how she manages to remain so neutral every day.

She is also the first woman (besides yours truly, of course) that he has really respected. He listens to her, he is polite and she has taught him skills that he will use for the rest of his life. He gets that. Miss Rhoades also got the first glimpse (just as I did this year) of the kind of man that my son will become. She is a great person to share that with. I am sad that this year is soon ending and that she will never teach my son again.

I will always remember Miss Rhoades and I know without a doubt that my son will too. While I know we must move on because that is how life is, my wish for her is that she will truly realize the value of what she held in her hands this year as a teacher, how she exceeded my every expectation and that she gets that she is respected, loved, admired by more people than she will ever know.  I want her to also know that there really are not enough words to thank her (although judging by this lengthy post, I certainly tried).

So being the incredibly crappy crafter that I am I am going to try to do a few crafts for her, maybe get her a gift certificate and possibly give her the title to my car (DISCLAIMER: It is only worth about $50). I am definitely getting the kids to help so I can blame them when things go wrong or look all lopsided. 😉 People always believe “the kids did it” story (Thank God!).

Here are some places to get some great ideas about gifts that you can make:

Seriously every one of the crafts the uber creative Skip to my Lou posted about rocks!!!!

Then one of her comments posted these cool, clipboard crafts. I like these so much that I may make a few for myself.

Family Fun magazine had some great ideas in this post for Teacher Appreciation gifts and even more here plus a couple here.

Here are some ideas from a site in the UK.

Here are the mandatory apple related things. Why the heck is that anyway that teachers are associated with apples? I missed that in the Introduction to Kindergarten to book. [Really please let me know if you do know the answer because now it will probably bug me until I know]

Last, my own idea is that during the next week, I am going to take pictures of every child in her class. Then I am going to ask each child what they love about her, what they learned from her and why they will miss her. Then after printing the pictures off and typing  up a page for each child, I will have the pages then laminated and spiral bound in a book.

It could never really be enough to thank her for everything but at least it will let her know that we know but that we just had to do something anyway.