In the interest of buying gifts, most of us keep track of loved ones’ birthdays. We make considerations during the holiday season. We may even offer “Christmas tips” to the babysitter, but there’s one important person whom you may be forgetting: your child’s teacher. Now, this will depend on how old your child is. An elementary school teacher is like a surrogate parent who doesn’t just teach material to children. Elementary school teachers develop social skills and correct bad behavior. With high school teachers, the story’s a lot different because, by that point, your child will have multiple teachers for whom to buy gifts, but if you have a child whose age is a single digit, then that child has only one teacher for whom to buy a gift, so please consider buying a gift for your child’s elementary school teacher. Such a gift will not be out of place, and he or she will appreciate the thought.
Less obviously, being generous to your child’s teacher is a good way to teach your child the value of generosity. Generosity is among a few immediate values that many parents may want to bestow upon their children, and buying a present for your child’s teacher offers one of the best opportunities to reinforce generosity in a developing mind. Though elementary school teachers are often responsible for scores of rowdy kids, rarely do teachers receive the money or the recognition they deserve. Whatever gift you choose, it will go a long way for a teacher.
What Gifts Are Appropriate?
While you cannot go wrong with much, a gift that a teacher finds thoughtful is most important, but constitutes a thoughtful gift? Apart from items a teacher may enjoy at home, consider gifts that a teacher might like to have in the classroom or gifts with which to decorate an office space. Paper weights, packs of nice pens, or non-perishable treats are all examples of appropriate gifts. Just make sure your budget is comfortable for you and the teacher. 25 to 50 dollars is appropriate for most gifts. Anything lower might make you feel guilty and the teacher feel dismissed. Anything higher might stress your wallet or make the teacher feel bribed into favoring your child’s performance in the classroom. If you’d really like to offer a larger gift, you can also ask if other parents might like to put money toward something more substantial, like a television, computer, or game console. Doing so will present a nice gift without putting pressure on any relationships. Without further ado, let’s go into some of the details regarding potential gifts.
1. Unusual Tea Sets
Assuming your child’s teacher is both studious and a lover of food, he or she may appreciate tea gifts, mainly a couple nice cups of tea. Some tea flavors available online include Almond Cookie Tea and Dark Chocolate Cookie Tea. Those are only the tip of the iceberg, and there are many options. Tea goes a long way as a gift because it does not cost much and lasts for a long time: Not only will many bags be included per purchase, but tea takes a long time to go bad.
2. Gift Cards
If you’re particularly worried about buying a gift for which a teacher may have no use, gift cards might be the way to go. With gift cards, you need only ballpark the teacher’s interests and let him or her put in the rest of the work to find something he or she really wants. If your child has told you the teacher is interested in sports, you can offer a gift card for a betting software. If the teacher has an interest in technology, then you can offer a gift card to Best Buy. Gift cards are some of the best ways to let the “thought” part shine through without being completely dismissive.
3. A Box of Chocolates
A box of chocolates may be the best non-perishable treat to offer: It is luxurious and clean. Chips and cookies love to get all over the floor and attract cockroaches, which would be especially problematic for a teacher living in an apartment, but chocolate that is made out of milk is not going to propagate immense amounts of crumbs. Chocolate is a lot easier and safer to eat on a couch than potato chips. It is also easier to share a box of chocolates with a partner or family member. Certainly, it is preferable to taking turns shoving hands in a bag of oil and salt. From an exclusively culinary perspective, this gift offers an opportunity to try many different things instead of the exact same thing over and over again, so it is particularly good for teachers who exhibit a distinct love of food.
