Keep it simple: EOY

*EOY is teacher lingo for end-of-year. BOY is beginning-of-year. MOY is middle...you get it.

Don't overcomplicate it. 

Teacher gifts: Last year, I went all out with cute little gifts of a glass iced coffee cup or whatever. They were a flat-out hassle to deliver and the one I kept for myself shattered and broke, so....

This year, Sutton had 3 teachers and Wells had one. Four Starbucks giftcards it was and a handwritten thank-you note for each. *As a teacher*, the cute stuff indeed looks cute but is rarely useful or worth hanging onto. I still remember the kids who gave me giftcards over the years because the practical efficiency of their parents stuck with me. Every single person, even if you hate Starbucks, will use a Starbucks giftcard. Sorry, but it's the truth. Although a kid did give me a nice notebook, and another gave me neat post-its and some great pens. That's always appreciated!

Birthdays: Wells got to take in a treat because he has a summer birthday. I could've panicked and tried to custom-order something because that's my tendency; then he told me he wanted cookies and then he told me he wanted donuts and then he told me he wanted cookies AND cupcakes and the kids would have to "make a hard decision" and I said no... then he didn't want to go to Walmart and told me to get donuts and that's what I got and it actually doesn't matter. It's what he wanted.

Student gifts: In the past, I've really hemmed and hawed over the perfect end of year activities or gifts for my class. This year, for field day, I ordered us some gear from Amazon. That was it. They don't want fancy stuff. Kids, honestly, want experiences. So sunglasses, eye stickers, headbands, and wristbands to go with our pink shirts it was!

Speaking of field day, it's A Thing here. I don't like organized fun so I put off the mile-long list of tasks required of me for my class to participate. I picked the color myself*, they picked our team name, and then I decorated the flag myself at home. 

*I wanted forest green. Then I was told it wouldn't be good with the black font because the writing on the shirts wouldn't be visible. I had about 2 hours in the middle of the school day to pick a new color. 

Summer activities: Speaking of overcomplicating...my pet peeve this time of year is the parents who put their kids in camps all summer long. In Missouri, summer school is a legit summer camp-style activity and it takes up all of June. Anyone can attend. But in other places, I've noticed parents are putting their kids into camps or spending $$$$ to send them off to camp and/or trying to figure out the logistics of having a place to send their kid every day lest they have nothing ("nothing") to do at home. Most of these are working parents, so I get that. But did anyone ever consider just hiring a babysitter? Having someone come to your house each day or dropping your kids off at a reputable sitter has to be 1/2 the cost of the camps. I babysat in the summer and one year I watched a toddler for $23 a day (which is what the mom paid for daycare the other two days of the week I didn't watch her) and, funnily enough, I babysat a toddler and an infant a few years later for $20 a day a few days a week, which was so below what I was worth and really speaks to what people are willing to pay for childcare if they can get away with it (but that's none of my business, I suppose :). (In either case, I had no business babysitting small children with my zero experience being around babies lol.)

All that to say, pay a teenager $60 a day to come to your house and care for your school-age kids for a few weeks out of the summer if it's about the childcare (you know, and not about organizing every second of your kids' lives and making sure they have More Fun Than Anyone Else.)

Do you have any other tricks to make the EOY and BOS (beginning of summer) uncomplicated? This is just my experience and realizations after many years of this.