On one hand, I'm really excited that Little Man and Miss will once again be at the same place next year. It simplifies my mornings significantly. And I love, love, love the school that they'll be attending.
On the other hand, I'm really, really sad that my days of dropping kids off with Ms. Mandi are over. I love our daycare workers. It's mainly Ms. Mandi, her husband, and her mom. Occasionally she will have a sub but for the last three years, these have been the main care providers of my children. It is really hard to say goodbye.
Back to the sweet hand, Little Miss is taking Irish dance, which Ms. Mandi is heavily involved in so we aren't totally saying goodbye.
But it won't be the same.
These people are who took us in when we needed to find someone to watch our kids at a really young age. Little Man was two and Little Miss was 8 months old when she started. We had a really bad sampling experience with another daycare the day before. I hesitantly dropped Little Man off for another trial run and when my mom went to get him, she immediately called me ecstatic - we had found our daycare.
The kids started there when Ryan was gone. She took pictures of them chronicling their growth. She had them draw pictures for him. She made sure to talk about him daily. She kept a daily log of what they did and ate so I could email it to him. She was a huge support for that year and has been ever since.
But now it is time to move on.
How to say thank you to such wonderful people? I struggled with this. I wanted to give them a huge bonus but we couldn't afford that. So I trolled the blogs for ideas and came up with a pretty fun, appreciative package. At least I think so!
I procured two pots, some seeds, gardening gloves, a gift card to downtown and found a great poem that sums up how most moms feel about their daycare workers.
The seeds I got were 4 o'clocks, since that was the usual pick up time for us and alyssums....reminded me of the word asylum and the fact our kids didn't send the workers there! I did a little play-on-words for those tags then wrapped a tag around the pot saying "Thank you for helping me grow."
The gift cards are for several businesses downtown and can be used at any of them. I like to stay local so this was that flavor.
The poem is called "A Mother's Thank You." I typed that up and had Little Miss do her handprints next to it then found some simple frames to put them in.
Overall I think it turned out really cute. Here's a pic:
I really like the text of the poem, so here it is:
A Mother's Thank You
For all your patience...day to day,
For every tear you wipe away,
For "little hands" you gently hold,
And all the stories you have told,
For your consoling, tender heart,
And all the wisdom you impart,
For silly songs & quiet times,
For peaceful naps & nursery rhymes,
...
For all the sweet things that you do,
To help the children all year through,
For being there in place of me.
I'm grateful...and I'll always be!
The three dots about 2/3 of the way down were because there were some lines in the original poem that weren't in the poem I copied. These lines are:
for teaching children how to share,
for being kind & being fair,
for every shoe that you have tied,
and thoughtful words that instill pride...
I really like those lines and wish I had seen them before I typed up and painted the ones I'm giving! But alas, I did not so there they stand.
I need to get gift bags for them tomorrow then we'll deliver them on Friday. I'm sure there will be some tears.
Then next week....it'll be Dear Husband's turn to provide the care! Bring on Daddy Camp!
Cheers,
Megs
PS: Anyone else have some great ideas that have been popular with daycare workers or preschool teachers? We need to show our appreciation for these people to whom we entrust our children's lives and good ideas can be hard to find!
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