Teachers are amazing. When it comes to showing our kids’ teachers appreciation, we want to show our gratitude for the incredible job they do.
Several years ago we came up with the idea of hosting a Teacher Appreciate Brunch for all our children’s teachers, and it has become even more meaningful than we could have anticipated. Here is everything you need to know about how to host a teacher appreciation brunch as your kids’ teacher gift.
We first hosted a teacher appreciate brunch because we realized our Christmas list of teachers had become long, and we didn’t want to leave anyone out! After hosting our first brunch, we saw even more the tremendous blessings in this activity.
We hosted our teacher appreciation brunch in our home, in January as our kids’ Christmas gift to their teachers. I have a friend who brings lunch to the teachers at the school one day in December and this is a wonderful idea too.
Why host a Teacher Appreciate Brunch?
Christmas or End-of-School-Year gift
Christmas or End-of-School-Year giftA brunch makes a great Christmas or end-of-the-school year gift. We do ours as a Christmas gift, but wait until January to host it, since December schedules are so hectic for everyone. An end-of-the-year picnic would be a fun idea as well.
Include everyone.
We’ve found we need to cut back on Christmas expenses more each year. (Hello, we have 5 kids.) For a few years, there was no way to include all our kids teachers, therapists, teacher aides, piano teachers, and Sunday School teachers.
But we appreciate everyone! By hosting a brunch, we are able to show our appreciation to all. Even if they don’t attend, they received an invitation so they know they were included and had the option to come.
Teach your children how to be good hosts and hostesses.
We didn’t start with this intention, and our brunch wasn’t super-formal (see below), but we realized that teaching our kids some of the basics of how to be a good host and hostess was a huge benefit of this tradition. Hosting people in our home is starting to become a lost art in our culture, and even when we do have people over, it tends to be with paper plates and feet up on the coffee table.
There’s nothing wrong with casual, but there’s something to be said for our children learning how to be more formal when the occasion calls for it.
These are some of the things we have taught our kids to do for our brunches:
- How to take a guest’s coat and remember where you put it
- How to serve appetizers and offer drink choices
- How to say grace (pray) before the meal
- How to introduce 2 people to each other
- How to be part of friendly conversation
For the younger ones, this party was one of the first events where they were expected to stay and be a part of the adult conversation rather than running off to play with the younger kids. It was a stretch for a few of our kids who are more shy and have special needs, but a great learning experience, and who better than teachers to help with this process? No one is more understanding and gracious when I explain that we are learning these things.
Show appreciation
We love our kids’ teachers! Simply the act of writing out all the invitations was humbling for me. I realize just how many people God has blessed us with to surround us with care, teaching, and instruction for our kids. I get tears in my eyes now as I sit here typing this.
We hope to give back in a small way.
Families of all the teachers are of course included and welcomed, too!
How to Host a Teacher Appreciation Brunch
Food
Depending on the number of people, we have had either a sit-down meal or a few hours of a come-and-go open-house style event. Both work just fine.
Our kids are involved in the meal planning, shopping and prep every step of the way. They helped with all the clean up too. We expect them to be a part of the work involved in the process — as well as the joy — of hosting an event.
Any type of food would work for this event, but brunch is a nice change of pace and a bit more formal than other meals. We host our events on a Sunday afternoon after church.
Menu option #1
Raspberry punch — this punch is always a hit and very easy. Even young kids can help with keeping the punch bowl filled. Just a caution that it does stain.
Tea, Coffee, Juice
Fruit kabobs or fruit salad (If you want to get really fun, look up how to make a fruit kebobs in a pineapple like in this link. My friend Ronda taught me how to do this and people love it!)
Menu Option #2
Tea, Coffee, Juice
Bacon or Sausage
Fruit Salad or Fruit Kebobs
Waffle Bar: Extra crispy waffles — here is the recipe.
A Chef Bekah recipe
Cook all of the waffles in advance and freeze them. The day of the party, bake the waffles in batches for 4-5 minutes on cookie sheets to reheat. They crisp up really well.
Offer a wide variety of toppings. Here is an example of a good set up of a waffle bar.
Invitations
We made invitations on the computer. You could also use evites.com or a similar online invitation program, but I like having the kids participate in making and addressing the invitations.
Enjoy!
Savor the time together with your guests and know you created wonderful memories.
Leave a Reply