Anyone else feel like their head is spinning trying to figure out how it is already November? I feel like I blinked, there went September. I blinked again and October was long gone too. (However the dumb Kansas weather is refusing to accept the fact that it is NOVEMBER and my kids were still in tank tops today and I’ve had allergies for the first time in my life that are driving me INSANE!!!)….whoops sorry for the detour…

Since time just won’t slow down, this week is Parent Teacher Conference week at Ruth’s elementary school. I’ve been thinking of Ruth’s teachers and Lydia’s preschool teachers today and my heart just wants to explode into pieces when I think about how grateful I am for them.

Do you know what Ruth told me happened the second week of school? A student puked on the teacher’s desk. Just for the record, that’s disgusting. And her teacher didn’t up and quit! She loved on the little lady and sent her home. Lydia’s precious preschool teachers help three year olds go potty all day. The required salary for me to help three year olds go potty would be one million dollars a year with bonuses every time poop is involved. But these amazing teachers do it all day for WAAAAAYYYYY less than that and they still take time to grab my girly in their arms and say, “Jesus loves you and so do I!”

My friends who know me well, know that my heartbeat is to make sure my kiddos’ teachers know how much we Fieleke’s appreciate them. There are just things in life you don’t skimp on; and loving on the people who love my little people is just one of those things! I think my mama taught me well – I remember in third grade, my mom hand painting Keds for each of my teachers. Pretty sure Keds were like 90’s teacher crack. And these weren’t just any Keds, these were Keds painted to look like Watermelons. Let’s just say, I was one loved on student when I got to hand out those snazzy shoes! Ha.

Listen, I know you are busy. I know that we mamas and daddies do an insane circus juggling act of balancing all the things all day long. But seeing as how our a lot of our kid’s teachers spend more time with them each day than we do, I think they deserve for us to take that extra few minutes to write them a note, send them a gift card, and tell them “Thank you.”

Here are 5 ideas to help us love our kiddo’s teachers well:

1. Every year, I ask my kid’s teachers what their favorite drinks are. So once a month or so, we swing through Dunkin or Starbucks and bring coffee and sodas to school and hand deliver them to the kid’s teachers. It takes about 5 extra minutes out of my day and about 5 extra dollars, but I hope that what it speaks to the kid’s teachers is, “I see you and I am crazy grateful for the ways you go above and beyond to help my kiddo day in and day out.”
2. Are you headed to help out at a Holiday Party? Grab a ten dollar gift card to a pizza place and bring it with you to give the teacher. Because while you are dropping everything to sit at your little one’s holiday party, their teacher is missing her own kid’s parties and it would probably mean a lot if she got to show up with surprise pizza for dinner!
3. Ask your kid’s teachers about their family – acknowledge that they have lives that exist outside of helping meet our needs. Tell them you are praying for their husband’s surgery or ask if their college kids are home for break. Just tell them you care! So many parents act like they are entitled to teachers who live to help their kids get ahead. Break the mold. Acknowledge that these men and women are doing impossible jobs for very little money and that we are insanely grateful.
4. Involve your kids in the process. Help them think of ways to honor their teachers. “Hey, lets run into the store this morning and grab some flowers for your teacher! That would help her (or him) know how thankful we are for the way they serve your class. Would you like to pick out the flowers?”
5. Don’t show up to parent teacher conferences empty handed! Bring a card letting your child’s teacher know how grateful you are for him or her. Bring a coffee because you understand its going to be a long night for that teacher and some parent is probably going to take out some frustration on them. Bring flowers or wine or a three dollar gift card to sonic. I don’t think the size of the gift matters. Its the stopping to say, “What you do matters so much to our family and we are grateful for every way you love our child!”
   I chaperoned Bitty’s school Fall Party. They sang songs at a nursing home and Bitty was all, “nope.” So we watched instead : ) I went straight from Bitty’s party to Ruth’s Fall Party and helped 24 first graders do a creepy craft. After the parties, I came home and crashed hard because being with that many kiddos for a few hours is exhausting….THAT IS WHY TEACHERS ARE MY HEROS!!!!!!!!!!!!!