If you have school-age children, you’ve probably heard rumblings of upcoming teacher appreciation events. At my kids’ school, a whole week is devoted to thanking our hard-working teachers, and May is the month chosen for the week-long outpouring of cards, gifts and luncheons. Well, tomorrow is May. Seems the right time to start thinking of gift ideas.

Teacher Appreciation Week can be a lot of fun. It can also be stressful. I mean, how exactly do you properly thank someone for teaching your youngsters to sit criss-cross applesauce, color in the lines, cut with scissors, spell, read, write and use good manners? In my opinion, you’ve got to find out a bit about the teacher who deserves the thanks, and then you’ve got to locate resources to help you take action on your findings.

Tip Junkie is just the place. Here, you’ll find amazingly creative ideas for making teacher survival kits, crafty clipboards and initial plaques made out of crayons. Here, you’ll stumble upon ideas for decorating teachers’ doors, putting together personalized journals and presenting plants with gift cards attached. Then there’s Skip to my Lou, where more ideas await you. No excuses for not appreciating your teachers after you shop these three sites.

Oh, and while you’re at it, you might as well get started on Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 10 is the big day)  — perfectly pretty gift ideas right here.

Photo by: Jeff Kubina on flickr