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Along with her background as a researcher, writer, and teacher, Joanne Meier is a mom. Join Joanne every week as she shares her experiences raising her own young readers, and guides parents and teachers on the best practices in reading.
Gifts for teachers, parents, and kids
It's the time of year when many of us are bustling around to find just the right gifts for the teachers, caregivers and kids in our life. Here are some ideas I've come across that you may find useful:
Choice Literacy's 5th Annual Gifts for Literacy Geeks includes things like heavy mental onesies for all you AC/DC fans that is pretty darn cute, and a link to instructions for making a literary clock out of favorite books.
An idea for grandparents and neighbors who have young readers on their list: Consider putting together a family literacy bag! Our Snowy Day Literacy Bag kit includes two books, free downloadable parent information, a hands-on craft project and bookmarks! We've got other family literacy bags too, and everything besides the books is available free from our website.
I always look at the Parents' Choice Holiday Gift Guide because they review books, games, DVDs, websites and more. This year they have a new interactive Gift Finder iPhone app which makes it really easy to bring the guide along shopping!
Another handy guide, our own 2010 Holiday Buying Guide. We all know books make the best gifts, and our guide helps you learn new titles for kids 0-9.
Zahra Baig, a teacher at a Montessori School, wrote her gift ideas in Beyond Gift Cards: A Teacher's Holiday Wish List that can be summed up by "presence, as well as presents." Her wish list includes for parents to attend parent nights and parent-teacher conferences. "Stocking stuffers" include keeping TV watching to a minimum, packing healthier lunches and encouraging physical exercise.
Gift cards and donations to local charities as teacher gifts are common ideas around our school this year. What teacher gifts do you give? What do you like to receive?
