An Apple for the Teacher?

It's nearly that time of year again; there are only 9 more weeks until the end of school, so what SHOULD you get for your child's teacher, coach or other important influential person. Some of my friends have already had this discussion, their suggestions included baked goods, chocolates, journals and pens. The best received gifts I have given my children's teachers were jewellery and fruit baskets (the jewellery was handmade earrings for L's first grade teacher and the fruit baskets were for L and R's teachers a couple of years later.)

The earrings, were hand made by myself and in this case I had simply taken notice of the jewellery L's teacher wore for the couple of months prior to Christmas so I was aware of what styles and colours she liked. The fruit baskets were, for us (in the Fresh produce industry) a cheap option, I bought some baskets from a dollar shop and filled them with as many different coloured fruits (and vegetables) as I could gather, then threw in a 3pk each of Ferrero Rochers and Raffaelos for good measure.

When we gifted the fruit baskets to the teachers all three of them exclaimed how beautiful they were, how different and how glad they were that they weren't chocolate; it seems teachers get a lot of chocolate as gifts!

Personally I would not give baked goods as a gift to a teacher as I know D won't eat anything that has been cooked in any private kitchen he hasn't been in himself. I MAY purchase some baked goods from a friend's patisserie and present them in a nice basket or gift box (including a card from the patisserie to both support my friend's business and let the gift receiver know that they have been baked in a commercial kitchen.)

Teachers must get a lot of "same-ish" gifts for Christmas and although I'm sure they'd use a lot of pens, notebooks and other stationery over a year, there only so many "Best Teacher" mugs and ornaments a person can use, surely? So, I'm trying to think outside the box and will see if I can find some ideas to post in an upcoming list.


This list was inspired by the joy of learning from a great teacher.

Kindest Wishes,
AJ

Buy Nothing New Month

Inspired by a friend committing to this challenge I have decided that I shall participate in it also. I have realised I have a couple of new items to pay for on Ebay (silly little fad things that R simply must have) but after those are paid for there will be nothing new this month.

Buying nothing new doesn’t mean going without. Make a Buy Nothing New Month pledge and you can beg, buy, barter and swap for whatever you need, as long as it is pre-loved, but with the exceptions of necessities (including food, drink, medications and hygiene products) you can’t buy anything new.

Further to this I have also decided that I am going to try harder than ever this year to take the commercialism out of our Christmas. Every year I say I'm not doing that again, not spending money in the toy sales, then a month before Christmas and then a week before Christmas, it's quite absurd really! Our children end up with more toys (or "things" as they get older) than they even look at generally and there always seems to be more packaging than gifts at the end of the day. The waste is hideous; not just financially but environmentally, so much unnecessary plastic, paper and cardboard, not to mention the wire and tape and the like.

Prior to the month starting (and totally unplanned) I purchased a large amount of vegetable seeds, unusual varieties and colours of vegetables (and fruits technically.) I'm proud to say they were all from home producers rather than commercial producers and will arrive with hand made labels and packages so I feel less like I've cheated the challenge by buying them just prior to it. Honestly, I didn't plan it that way in any case! Maybe they can be counted as food and none of that matters anyway?

More about Buy Nothing New Month (BNNM) here.

Kindest Wishes,
AJ