Welcome to Fall at Yellow Stitch Boutique! It is truly one of our favorite seasons for fashion, although in our household, I am not certain that we are ready for school to start. The girls have been busy getting back to practices for sports and school officially starts on Thursday, August 24th.
As we start to get our children ready, we sometimes forget about the people who will spend more waking hours with our children than we as parents do. Teachers have been preparing for the upcoming school year......well, probably since last school year ended. They really are the most unspoken super heroes.
Our monthly mission here at YSB (Yellow Stitch Boutique) is to provide teachers some aid to start off their school year.
This is the first year that I won't have a child in Elementary school so our back to school shopping was for pretty basic essentials. No more bright pink or glittery folders in this household! But, it doesn't mean that we won't still be visiting the elementary schools in our community.
Did you know.......on average, elementary school teachers pay over $800/year of their personal income to provide essentials for their classrooms?
I don't know about you, but I am just one of "those moms" who always wanted to help my child's teacher, but I just didn't know how or what they needed. Not until I started asking. This will be our 3rd year of making back to school baskets for teachers in our area.
We will be using 10% of every order placed through the end of September to continue to purchase items for these teachers.
You know those "If you give a mouse a cookie books"? If not, just google it......
I feel like we could write a book titled "If you give a teacher a basket" and the ending would absolutely read "If you give a teacher a basket, one of the most important people in your child's life might feel valued, appreciated and loved just like they make your child feel every day."
What do we put in these baskets?
Mints
Gum
Ink Joy Pens (teachers LOVE them)
Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens (Seriously....I have never met a teacher who does not collect these gems)
Markers
Dry Erase Markers....like a lot of them and all kinds of them
Coffee Shop Gift Cards
Chocolates
Snack Packs for their students.
I polled a few of our favorite teachers just to find out for anyone wondering how they could maybe help out their child's teacher to start out the school year........I hope you will consider giving back to someone who gives so much of who they are selflessly to your child 5 days a week! Here are the questions I asked followed by a few of the responses.
"If you could choose one way for a parent to help you out by providing something for your classroom what would you choose for them to do?"
"A little snack or treat during our big testing windows at beg/mid/end of year."
" Words of encouragement to student with a little treat/snack"
"I’d like parents this year come in and read to my class so they feel a part of our family!"
"What are some snack items you purchase quite often to keep in your classroom for hungry kids?"
"Cheese its, chips, snack crackers"
" I like to have cheese sticks, animal crackers, pretzels, goldfish handy for snacks"
"Cheese its, pretzels, snack size cracker packs"
"What is one item you purchase that parents might not think about?"
"Extra tissues, dry erase markers, extra markers/crayons for second half of the year, laminating sheets"
"Hard candy/gum for testing, breakfast bars for kids who don’t get breakfast, Dry erase markers."
"I don’t know if parents realize that we have to buy everything from staples to scotch tape paper clips board erasers folders binders paper art supplies science experiment materials. Also, we are given a budget at the beginning of the year. You get so much money per kid, but that goes towards your math books handwriting without tears it can be used for new book boxes, containers, whatever you need for your room, but that money you also save for your printing throughout the year."