Gift For Long Term Clients

[Cat Herder]

Mine have come full circle with this new group. They all have home gardens, shop thrift, cook at home, and volunteer locally. The trend now is getting rid of grass lawns and doing regenerative landscaping & gardening. It has been really fun lately....

[Annalee]

I give them a bag of school-supply goodies....some bring me departing gifts, some do not.....I'm over all of this, though, with the new generation of families...just a different age, time, culture.

[e.j.]

I do Shutterfly photobooks for each kid, too. Also, whenever we do handprint crafts, I keep a cutout of their hands and write the date on them. When they leave, I trace their various sized handprints onto a canvas bag, along with the dates they were traced. I put the photobook(s) into the bag along with a book about starting preschool/kindergarten/first grade if the kid is leaving for school or a coloring book and crayons or small toy if not.

[Cat Herder]

I send them off with a goodbye book, a book bag full of school supplies, a W-10, a copy of their shot record, and a party if they are aging out.

If they are leaving sooner they just get their goodbye book, W-10, and shot record.

I make their goodbye books at the end of their first full week in care. I have the group add something to it each preschool year. They are "cute" if they leave early and "priceless" if they stay for the full 5-6 years.

[Blackcat31]

Not usually. The last 4 families that have aged out have given me gifts though.
I used to do the Shutterfly book of photos and/or other little things I know the child/family would like but these last several years just haven't inspired me to continue to do this. lol!

[GirlMomma]

I don’t do anything unless they are going into Kindergarten. I plan to gift the child a book and have a little celebration for the child on their last day. I love the Shutterfly idea from MissCait!

However, I do spend $20 on every child at their birthday, about $10-$15 on every child at Christmas, including siblings that may have come for drop in care that year and I have the kids make/decorate gifts for their parents at Mother’s/Father’s Day.

[GirlMomma]

This is a cute idea!!

[SandBox]

For families that I love, I make them a Shutterfly photo book of their kids time with me. I used to do it for everyone regardless, but then decided why would I do it for jerks. They don’t deserve it. Because it’s usually very well received and the parents love it and so do their kids. They tell me their kids carry it around for a few days looking at all the memories.

The idea came to me because I went to in-home and I have no pictures. And my caregiver died of cancer 25 years ago and I loved her so much.

[TwinMama]

Do you give gifts when long term families leave your program?