Choosing a special gift for a teacher can be challenging. The key is to find a gift that reflects the true appreciation of the gift giver and is also valuable and meaningful to the teacher. Teachers receive a lot of gifts throughout the school year, but the most cherished and memorable are the homemade gifts that truly reflect the families who have created them.
Homemade Teacher Gifts
Homemade gifts that showcase a special ability or offer a gift of time or professional services are truly loved by teachers. Homemade gifts may or may not be less expensive depending on what the family chooses, but the thought and care taken to create the gift will be most cherished. Many homemade teacher gifts, however, can be made inexpensively if everyday items that are already in the home are utilized or if a certificate for a personal service or gift of time is created.
Showcase a Special Talent
Everyone has a special skill whether he or she realizes it or not – gardening, cooking, crafting, sewing, wood working, photography or graphic design. The list could go on forever. Turn that ability to do something well into a meaningful homemade gift that a teacher will love.
- Design a beautiful and colorful potted planting full of perennial plants from the garden.
- Bake a big batch of the family's famous chocolate chip cookies.
- Create a set of personalized note cards using scrapbook-making materials.
- Build a wooden birdhouse or birdfeeder using scrap wood in the family workshop.
- Knit a simple scarf using yarn in the teacher's favorite colors.
- Sew or monogram a personalized teacher tote bag.
- Create a one-of-a-kind classroom calendar on the computer.
Give the Gift of Time
If a parent's special talent does not translate well into a gift that can be wrapped, create a homemade gift certificate for a service the parent will provide in the future that will truly help the teacher at school. Teachers are constantly looking for volunteers to help in various ways both at school and at home and by offering their services for the year, parents are giving teachers the wonderful gift of time.
- Take photos during special events and field trips and email to families.
- Sew or create costumes for classroom productions.
- Cut paper and organize materials for class art projects.
- Bake treats for classroom parties.
- Make all the needed photocopies each week for the classroom.
- Organize the classroom library every month.
A Gift of Professional Services
Working parents who are business owners or skilled professionals can offer a gift certificate for their services that provide a teacher with a special treat or an otherwise valuable service. Depending on the profession, some parents opt to trade gift certificate services with a fellow colleague at their place of work in order to preserve a professional parent-teacher relationship.
- Salon owners or hairdressers offer free haircuts or spa services.
- Mechanics offer free car repairs or oil changes.
- IT professionals offer free computer repair or debugging.
- Web designers offer to design and maintain the teacher’s website.
- Dentists offer free cosmetic services.
- Photographers offer free portraits.
- Musicians offer free lessons.
Homemade gifts for teachers can be valuable and meaningful to both the giver and the recipient. When the homemade gift features a special talent or ability of someone in the family, its thoughtfulness is clear and the expression of gratitude is real. A gift of time or service is priceless. When parents select to offer something of themselves and their families, it is a meaningful display of thankfulness for the teacher and all she has done. While anyone can go out and purchase a quick little gift, homemade teacher gifts that come from the heart will be treasured and remembered forever.
Jocelyn Scotty - A freelance educational writer, certified Montessori teacher, former teacher educator and school administrator, Jocelyn is also the ...
