Call it what you will. Possibly a combination of both? Yes, we skipped sending the plain ole apple for our monster’s teachers on their first day of school this year. Risking the chance that they would end up with so many apples they would have to make apple pies with them this weekend was not my goal. We opted to go with something useful! How about a reusable travel coffee cup with a gift card inside to fill that baby with some tasty goodness from starbucks? Yes, we’ll go that route. Schmoozing? Maybe, have you met my monsters? Particularly my sweet little Buggie? These ladies deserve those cups of coffee! Okay, all joking aside now. It was honestly more a symbol of our appreciation. These ladies will be taking over the daily caring I have provided for my monsters their entire lives and helping to provide them with an education. Heck yeah I appreciate these ladies! Weather they realize it or not they are providing a huge part of our monster’s lives. I still have very vivid memories of some of my favorite teachers through the years, some teachers I thankfully get to still communicate with via facebook. Starting with my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Eckerle. I genuinely loved that lady! I hope that our children will have those same experiences in their childhood. Budah does. We both have fond memories of some of his rad teachers through the years before we started homeschooling. We don’t just send our monsters off to school thinking oh well now they are their problem. Okay, so secretly I am a little nervous as to how Buggie is doing in school. She is quite the little pistol. We’re really hoping she isn’t our first child that makes frequent trips to the principals office, eek! We do however like to maintain a hands on approach with our monster’s education as we do with every other aspect of their lives. After all, we can’t expect these teachers to do all of the work can we? I want to know what is going on. I want their teachers to know we care. Call us. Email us. Ask me to volunteer for class parties or to teach art classes. I thrive on having that ability to still be an active role in their lives even if they do spend a majority of their time at school now. If anything I may be guilty of over volunteering for all of their school events. I just can’t seem to help myself.