I shared this w/ a group of ladies on a message board that I belong to...So thought maybe I'd share it here too....

We have started getting ready for Natalie and Nicole's homeschool graduations. I'm not sure how many others have done a homeschool graduation yet.....so I thought I'd share our journey through it....I hope it's not too boring........

Up until very recently, we had no idea what we were going to do concerning a ceremony, a party or anything......and we had given it much thought.....Should we come up w/ our own type of ceremony??? (I was very stressed about this, as I am not a creative type person, and was afraid of letting the girls down where this was concerned.....and I didn't know how seriously our family members would take it...especially if it wasn't more of a typical graduation type service......so I have thought about this alot......

Well, Natalie works w/ a lady who is very involved in the local homeschool group here in town.....and they invited the girls to take part in their graduation service. She mentioned to Natalie that the ceremony isn't just for the children in their group, but for anyone who homeschools and is graduating this year and would like to be part of a group ceremony and that there were others not in our area who would also be taking part in their ceremony.....So after talking it over, we all decided we would join them.

We had our first meeting last Friday. There are about 10 seniors graduating. We will be having the ceremony at a local church (this is where the homeschool group holds their classes and meetings.) Each family puts in $40 to cover the cost of decorations, supplies, a speaker, punch and cake for after the ceremony, etc.) There are other expenses as well....We are responsible for getting our own diplomas, paying for our own caps and gowns, announcements (if we choose to send them out.)...hmmm, I know there is more, but it isn't coming to mind right now..... Everyone has to do their part to make this work......We (our family, namely, me, lol)  are in charge of ordering everyone's caps and gowns. Everyone gets to choose their own colors, and must have all info to me by a set date, and I will place the order.

Graduation is set for Friday, June 1, 2007.....Wow, it's an actual reality!!!! It's hard to believe my oldest are graduating......then it will be Aaron in 2 years, and Jake the year after that...yikes!!!!!

We are having a small open house for the girls on Saturday June 2, 2007......We have already rented a small township hall for that date. My sister is a resident in the area it is located in(the next town over, where most of our local family lives) , and we were able to rent it for only $50.00........it is small, but the perfect size for us, as we only have about 75 - 80 people to invite, and I am sure many of them won't come......The only family who has room at their house to hold an open house is my parent's.....and they did offer, but we are trying to not burden them...as this will be the first grandchildren graduating, and it would just be too much for my parents to have all the graduations that are coming up at their house....

Natalie and Nikki have chosen their colors: Navy and gold....not for any particular reason.......they liked the navy gowns....and when we were going to order them from HSLDA, that is the color they have....but we are now going through the same source as the other homeschoolers...Jostens....the girls still like the navy, so that's what we are going with......We were also going to order their diplomas through HSLDA, but after looking online, we found some that we all like much better and will be ordering them from here...Most of the diplomas we found were more of the fill in the blank type...these ones are very personalized and look so much nicer.....They have also already picked out their announcements from the same site........and we have already gotten the wording all figured out so that we will only be ordering one set of  announcements  w/both the girls names on it......

We also have to work on graduation pics....I think we will be setting up an appointment at the Olan Mills studio for those....

and if we can afford to, we think they will be choosing class rings as well.......either from here.........or from here..... ( the rings are very costly in the first link, so we are hoping to find them at a better price, but we really like the Nuance style ring.....)  We are looking for something different, not the traditional type style that most school kids get.....

Whew, I think that's it for now....

Karen