graduation ceremonies

Our co-op always has a commencement ceremony, but this year, my daughter was the only graduating senior in the group!  (Usually, there are 6 to 10 seniors.)  They would have gone ahead and held it for her, but she didn’t want to be up there all by herself!  Plus, the entire cost of it would have fallen on our family, except for the reception and some of the things the co-op normally provides, like programs, the facility, the guest speaker.

So….we found two other families that we have known for several years, and the three girls will be walking in commencement together.  We (the moms and the graduates) have been planning it together, to be held in our church sanctuary, although we are all from different churches. Included in the ceremony will be the usual “pomp and circumstance” processional, three worship songs, brief speeches from each of the girls, a letter written to each girl by her parents (but read by someone else–too emotional!), a keynote speech by a guest pastor, a video montage of pictures of the girls over the years (set to music they chose), and the awarding of diplomas.  We all got the diplomas and the caps/tassels/gowns from HSLDA, but you can get them other places, or create your own diploma from templates found online.

We are going to have a reception afterwards (fruit, cheese, finger desserts), but each of the girls’ families will plan their own graduation party separate from the commencement event.

We attended a very special graduation nite last year. Pictures and music were on the screens while people filtered in, maybe 20-30 total. It was an evening of worship led by the grad and a friend, showcasing her talents and interests with both parents speaking of their journey raising and homeschooling her, with her out of the room to get cap and gown on(they shared triumphs over dyslexia with her permission) and she then walked up the aisle to pomp and circumstance and her parents presented her with diploma and flowers. <span style=”line-height: 1.5;”>The family had reserved the youth room at their church, decorated it with giant balloons in her favorite colors, nacho bar and ice cream sundaes at the back for after. </span>

We also attended our co-ops ceremony, more traditional and expected and not personalized, with 6 receiving diplomas. It was nice but I liked the former better.

I forgot to mention that, at our commencement ceremony (as in previous years with our co-op), each graduate will have one of those tri-fold presentation boards on display with a lot of pictures from their childhood and homeschool journey.  They will also lay out mementos of their school days on the table in front of the boards–things such as certificates from swim team and fine arts lessons, recital programs, college acceptance letters, badges and awards from scouting or 4-H, ribbons from Fair, etc. Some of the kids do this in scrapbook form and lay that out.  Of course, they place their diplomas on this table, too, after the ceremony.