I know that many of you have never been to a home school graduation before, so let me start by giving you a bit of background info. There are as many different types of home school graduations as there are home schools, so no two are the same! The biggest decision that my daughter had to make was whether or not she wanted to graduate with a group or as an individual. She decided that she wanted a more intimate graduation with her family and friends.
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| This is one of her senior pictures |
We began with the basis of a party! She knew that she wanted a large celebration involving the many people that have played a part in her schooling be it through church, co-op, life skills, etc. After deciding on a celebration involving dinner, we moved to the guest list.
Our plan was to have approximately 100 people celebrate with us on this day. Well....with that many people our food options were limited. We either cater it out (which was wayyyy too expensive!), or we find a food that can be mostly prepped beforehand. My stepmother suggested fajitas and we thought that was a brilliant idea so we went with it!!
Then we moved on to the actual schedule. We live about an hour from most of our family and friends, so we decided to begin with about an hour set aside for fellowship and hors d'oeuvres. This would allow extra travel time for those who might underestimate the drive time as well as allow extra time for traffic.
After that we went into the actual graduation ceremony. I allowed about 45 minutes for the ceremony and in the end, that seemed to be a good estimate. The ceremony was followed by dinner and an hour after dinner we opened up the dessert bar!! To end it all, we planned on lighting a bonfire once the sun went down and bringing out the S'mores material!!
Schedule complete! Now on to planning the ceremony. I found several ideas online, but this is what we ended up going with:
Prelude: One Thing Remains by Passion - we asked her to choose a song that summed up her mindset as she goes forward in her life
Welcome and Prayer: Farmer Willie - this was a time to thank everyone for coming to celebrate with us as well as open us in prayer
Processional: Pomp and Circumstance
Our Homeschooling Journey: Me :) - here I gave a little background info regarding our homeschooling experience as well as a few lessons that I have learned along the way
Shared Words From Family and Friends - during this time we asked if any of her family or friends in the audience would like to share anything with her or about her
A Pictorial Transcript: Created by her sister!! - this was outstanding! Her sister took photos from birth up to her graduation pictures and make a beautiful slide show set to music. I still tear up when I watch it!!
Charge to the Graduate: Farmer Willie - for this, her Daddy took time to share a few words of advice and to express our confidence in the fact that she is well prepared to go and do what the Lord has called her to do!
Reflections from the Valedictorian: The graduate herself!! - mostly she thanked people for the part they have played in her life and expressed their importance to her
Presentation of the Diploma: Farmer Willie and I - we found a beautiful diploma template online so we made the necessary changes and printed it on beautiful paper for her
Closing Prayer and Blessing: All attendees led by Farmer Willie - to close it up, we asked everyone to come and lay hands on her as her Daddy led everyone in a prayer of blessing
We printed the schedule for the afternoon/evening as well as the ceremony on some cardstock and DD#2 cute-i-fied them!!
With the scheduling and planning now complete, we moved on to carrying out the logistics!! We sent out invitations, ordered chairs from a local party company, borrowed several tables, went shopping at a local Sam's Club, got the house all picked up and were ready to go.
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| We had the invites printed at Walgreens. Obviously I blurred out her name and our address :) It was not like that on the actual invites!!! |
Oops!! Then I realized that I forgot to order her cap and gown!!! In the end, finding a gown was easy, but we were down to the wire on the cap!! We finally found one about an hour away and Farmer Willie walked in to pick it up 15 minutes before they closed!! Whew!!
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| Getting ready to graduate!! |
My fabulous sis-in-law and her sweet family came a day early to help get everything ready as well as volunteer her services for making an outstanding graduation cake!!
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