An Apple a Day? Notsomuch.

As the child of a teacher, I noticed that our house started to fill up with lovely Dollar Tree paraphernalia {READ: Crap-ola} around Christmas every year. There were, of course, the mandatory apple ornaments, "vanilla" scented candles and enough ceramic teddy bear teachers to stuff your stocking.

But, the double whammy of this situation is that my maiden name is Hart. So, around Valentine's Day, just when you thought that pseudo-vanilla scent was gone for good, the onslaught began for Mrs. Hart. You could almost taste the smell of faux rose, apple cobbler or raspberry sorbet scents that filled the air. If it were up to me it would have filled the gar-baaage, but my mom is a much nicer person than I am. So we all had to suffer.

Now that things have come full circle and I am the parent, I want to make sure that our teachers are thrilled with the gifts we give them {let me add a disclaimer here before I get into trouble that my mom loved her gifts}. We want to show them how much we love them and care for them. And let's just be honest here: I would like my child to be their favorite and get special treatment. That's all I'm asking.

So, with that in mind, I'm sharing a little secret with you. I've started handing out this questionnaire to my kids' pre-school teachers. {I just started using Scribd tonight for this purpose, so let me know if it works okay for you. It changed my cute font, so e-mail me if you want the original, but know you can download and change the fonts to whatever you'd like.} This idea and 3rd degree line of questioning came from a good teacher/ friend of mine, so I got it from an inside source.

It asks the tough questions- like Bar-bwa WaWa:
What is your name including middle initial? {for monogram purposes, of course}
What is your favorite restaurant? {for gift cards or lunches}
What is your favorite drink? {to see if she writes Bud Light Lime or something of the sort. That's really a trick question...}

It's not too late if you have already started school. Just add a casual, "I forgot to get this to you on the first day, but we would really like to know more about you".

This is a wonderful tool if you got suckered into being are the room mom.
And it helps to have an edge on the room mom if you aren't her. I'm just saying...

The chance of possibly adding a gold star at the end of the week? Decent.
The suck up factor? Huge.
Finding out the way to a teacher's heart? Priceless.

Enjoy!

For more Works for Me Wednesday Tips, head on over to We Are THAT Family.