Teacher's gifts??

So do you  give the teacher's a gift at the end of the year? and when did we start  doing so? I am guessing sometime between my leaving school and my kids starting school - in fairness that it a considerable time frame! Don't get me wrong I actually like giving the teachers a gift. I think that having worked day in day out not just educating my kids but inspiring them, developing their confidence and independence, something that shows that they are appreciated  can only be a good thing. As much as I love chocolate and flowers and smellies even I can appreciate that there is may be a  limit to the amount one person needs!! So when Rebecca started school I decided that I would try to give small but unique gifts with some homemade element. Among  the offerings to date have been :

Handwoven Easter baskets after a particularly stressful and difficult term

Hand felted and embroidered picture cards

 

  

As well as Christmas pudding baubles, stationary boxes, paint can chocolate tins, and felt Christmas decorations. 

This year the girls chose to repeat an idea we had used a couple of Christmases ago - cookie jars. The idea is that the gift is the dry ingredients to produce cookies to which the recipient adds eggs and butter. So they get cookies and a nice jar. The Christmas cookie jar had been white chocolate and  cranberry so I wanted something different this year - my sister in law over at Dreaming of the Country  had posted the recipe for these m&m cookies which looked great.

 
 So I downloaded her recipe which fitted nicely in the 1 litre jars that I picked up on special offer at Sainsburys.

 The tags and cards came from an internet card making site 'card making downloads' It is a useful site when running short of time to create cards from scratch  - you simply purchase the downloads you require then print and assemble them.

 
For fun we added a red spatula and some ribbon from my ribbon box.

 So we are all set for the end of term - roll on the holidays  - and my next post - holiday bags!!!