Do You Buy Holiday Gifts for Your Middle Schoolers Teachers?

My son is in Jr. High. I also have two children in elementary school.
I didn't buy any of the teachers gifts.
Not because I don't appreciate them...I do!
BUT...
#1. I don't have enough money to buy them all gifts
#2. Don't usually buy people gifts for doing their job.
On teacher appreciation week I send in food for their potluck, I send in food/treats whenever there is a classroom party, I send a thank you note at the end of the school year.
That's just me though!

My daughter is in 8th grade and wants to give to 10 of her teachers. This year I am giving large size chocolate bars which are about $2 each. I think it is the thought that counts but make it something they can actually consume or at least give away....no candles, mugs, beauty products, etc. (My oldest is in college and we want to get her through without accumulating debt for her or us. We have cut back this year)

(My oldest gave gifts throughout HS too)

We give to teachers with whom my kids have a strong connection. My 7th grader adores his history teacher and now takes band every day with the same music teacher he has had since 4th grade, so we're doing a $10 Dunkin Donuts card for each, with a handwritten note from him. My older kids also only gave to certain middle and high school teachers. My oldest received academic support so that teacher got a gift every year, and the rest of the subjects would get gifts if they were favorite teachers. With also needing to give gifts to my youngest son's teacher, 7 hockey coaches, a piano teacher, the bus drivers, etc. it really adds up so covering another 5 teachers at the middle school level is a bit much.

We baked little mini bread loafs. They enjoyed it. They have 6 teachers as well

Merry Christmas

tin o' cookies.
khairete
S.

No, but only because I never really had a relationship with any of them. However I DID contribute food and treats to the teacher appreciation luncheons in middle school, and I know they appreciated that :-)

Here they don't give them once they hit middle school. I had some homemade treats and they looked horrified when I suggested they take some in.

We don't. It was ok in elementary when they had one teacher, plus music and gym but in middle school they have a different teacher for each subject. That would be a lot of gifts!

I do. I may be a little biased since I am a teacher too but I know how hard the teachers work. I just can't NOT appreciate them too. For my elementary child, I do a 25 dollar gift card to a favorite restaurant. For my secondary kids (I have three...one in middle school, two in high school), I bake a mini loaf of cinnamon bread and add a 5 dollar Sonic card along with a handwritten Christmas note thanking them for their hard work and anything I can add about what my child likes about their class. With three kids, we bought 25 Sonic cards this year. :) My kids also tell me that they don't see anyone else give gifts and always complain about delivering them but I know they secretly are thankful we recognize their teachers. (And they are always the ones who get the thanks...not me :) My oldest child asked me if I was going to deliver gifts for his college professors next year ; I told him he was on his own then. :)

If your son has a teacher who is particularly effective or helpful,or whose class he especially enjoys, I'd write a card of appreciation to that teacher. But if he simply goes from teacher to teacher, class to class, then I'd refrain from sending a gift. Really, $5 won't go far - it's barely enough for a cup of coffee, so it seems pretty useless.

Nothing - except maybe if one or two teachers have a special connection with or impact on your son, can give just to them. (And as some other posts note, do not give $5 - that basically forces the teacher to add money to use whatever the gift card is, $5 is not really a "gift".)

One thing to keep in mind - and you might not have faced this yet because this is your oldest child - at a certain point, gifts to teachers start being viewed by other students (and sometimes by teachers) as "bribes". With all of the competition for grades and test scores and college admissions, some schools even have rules against gift-giving for that exact reason.

I usually don't do holiday gifts. As someone said earlier...there is a teacher appreciation week, this is a good time to participate in something organized by the school.

I am coming in late on this but I have a middle school student for the first time this year.

I got his teachers small gift cards to Starbucks and wrote them each a little note. I also did that for the clinic staff and attendance person (because my son was injured THREE times in the first semester and they all helped him so much).

But I did budget for it all year long. With our other Christmas funds.

No. You should not be spending $200 on teams of teachers. I make cranberry nut bread in the small mini-loaf tins that I get for 30 cents at the discount store, and wrap them in cellophane with a piece of curly ribbon. I give these to the FedEx and UPS drivers who always give my dog biscuits with every package delivery, the garbage collector, the plow guy, the newspaper delivery guy, the letter carrier, and the pharmacists. You could do that with teachers, including physical ed/music/art for far less than the $5 or $10 gift card, which would in turn require the teacher to lay out money of his/her own 90% of the time to "top off" the card. We have a local bakery that makes fabulous oversized brownies for $2.50 each - sometimes I give those in a cellophane bag with some ribbon, and the bakery will also cut 4 different flavor brownies into quarters, put them in little paper cups, and then wrap 1 mini-bite of each of the 4 flavors in a bag or little box. So everyone gets a bit of fudge walnut, a bite of raspberry chocolate, a bite of blondie, etc. They look adorable and cost $2.50 each AND support a local business.

Unless you have a room parent who will collect money from every parent and organize a group gift (which we do in elementary school but it breaks down in middle school when kids are so split up among so many teachers), go small. Include a nice handwritten note - from the child - about the teacher and offering good wishes for the new year. Done.

My daughter always gave a little something to her teachers.

Most of the women like chocolate so she'd do a small Godiva box. Her math teacher loved Sonic and never came to school without his Sonic drink so she gave him a gift card in s Sonic cup. Many teachers love Starbucks and that was always a hit.

I typically did about $10 per gift card/gift in Middle and High school because you have so many teachers. Still, she typically gave something to the teachers she loved.

I did cookie tins for all teachers for all 6 kids, until they hit high school - then I would ask if they had a teacher they wanted to give a tin to. They always had one or two teachers they wanted to give to.

I also always did a cookie platter for the front office staff at the school and for the breakroom with a note to the paraprofessionals and one to the janitors. These folks work hard for your child and are often overlooked during the holiday season.

Good luck!

We baked cookies for the teaches. Uplease till high school.

Teachers really do much more than PST people know. We break up verbal fights, we give snacks, we stand in when a student needs us. A $5 gift card goes a long way. Do not stop doing that. It's a very cheap thank you.

My guess is that most don't give once their child hits middle school and several teachers unless one of them has been particularly meaningful.

My son has special needs, and we give all of his teachers and aids a $10 giftcard. It's not much to the individual, but he has 6 teachers and adds up quickly. Still it's important to us because we really do know how much of an impact they make in his daily life. I forsee us budgeting for this every year!

If there is a teacher than has been particularly helpful to your son, I would seriously consider giving that teacher something. Otherwise, just know that at this level it isn't really as expected. Elementary teachers have much more of a "hand on," "motherly" type job. They have more of an emotional connection with their students. With older students, there often isn't that connection for many reasons. It's just developmentally very different. I think that's more the reason there is so much emphasis on giving to elementary teachers.

Why? Most parents don't do anything for the teachers. It's nice if you have extra money you don't need for bills or food but most are struggling just to meet their own expenses. So it's not really something I'd expect a parent to do.