Oklahoma City family fun has so much to teach us.
It's no coincidence that Mother's Day and Teacher Appreciation Week come at the same time of year. Formative people, the early caregivers, teachers, moms, grandmas, foster parents: we are all here for little ones but also for the long haul.
I am grateful there are people outside our home who care about my children, who form part of their community, familiar faces they'll greet in the grocery store or at school again for years to come. A connection is there that lasts beyond the classroom.
We have a lot in common, parents and teachers, supervising these growing children as they blow out the candles year after year or teaching them the ABCs and beyond. That involvement comes from a place of care and constancy. We know, maybe more than anyone besides teachers, that this isn't easy.
If you have a school-age child, you've heard it's Teacher Appreciation Week. You know. You've received the emails, you've signed the class card or chipped in or meant to and dang it, this end-of-year rush is always just that, a rush.
Study after study shows that one caring adult makes a positive impression on a child. Teachers do so much more than impart school. That's their job but the way they do it makes all the difference.
Something else we already know as parents is that jobs like ours can be exhausting and mostly thankless but necessary every day. Time is on your side to recognize your child's teacher. It doesn't have to be this week. School is still in session for another couple weeks.
If you're looking for a list of gifts for teachers, check out these suggestions from MetroFamily's readers.
Another suggestion? Bring Oklahoma City family fun to your teacher with admission tickets to a favorite venue. A membership is very nice but even just a pair of tickets to a cool place like the Oklahoma History Center or the Oklahoma City Museum of Art is something different he or she could enjoy. That knowledge just might circle back to the classroom.
Community works in many ways. Thank you to the Oklahoma teachers who give our kids a framework for what they see and do within ours.
