This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: High School Graduation Celebration Ideas.

The day finally comes. Your homeschool high schooler has earned all the credits, completed all the tasks, and planned their next steps in life. It’s time for graduation!

Congratulations to your teen…and also to you, homeschool moms and dads. High school graduation is a wonderful time, and it is emotionally complicated, as well. The end of an era of parenting and of homeschooling has come. The beginning of a new phase of life is about to begin.

We 7Sisters understand. We have graduated a couple of dozen of our own homeschoolers, so we understand the highs and lows. That means we have also held lots of graduation celebrations.

With that in mind, we (Sabrina, Vicki, and Kym) are going to share some of our favorite graduation celebration ideas!

As you know, there’s not ONE right way to homeschool. Along with that, there’s not ONE right way to celebrate your homeschooler’s graduation. We will share what has worked for us.

One of the funny things about homeschooling is graduation! Our first generation of high schoolers had never been to graduation ceremonies. So, when it came time for them to graduate high school and we started talking about graduation ceremonies, they said, “What’s the big deal?”

None of our teens were into showy stuff and wondered why they needed to have an official ceremony. Vicki remembers that she informed her teens, “Listen, you may not have any idea, but I need to see you walk across the stage. And I have earned that, so you are going to do that.”

Parents have that need for closure, and a ceremony gives us that feeling. When our teens walked across the stage in caps and gowns, and we flipped the tassel on their caps, we felt we had the closure we needed on our teens’ homeschooling journey.

After all, homeschooling is a family process. Teens are not isolated in their education. We are there with them, instructing, guiding, and supporting them. So graduation ceremonies are not just for teens. They are also for us.

So you see, the graduation ceremony is a validation of our family’s homeschool education and a gathering with other people to say, “We did this. We did this. We did high school.”

Our teens came to enjoy the graduation ceremony process, so it turned out well.

There’s not one right way to hold a graduation ceremony. Some people have the event in their backyard. We borrowed a church for the day. (BTW- learn more how-tos in this Homeschool Highschool Podcast episode on planning graduation ceremonies.)

Because we held a group graduation, we ordered caps and gowns together. However, we know some co-ops that have group ceremonies where the students wear business or formal attire instead of caps and gowns. (We know one graduating senior who made her own graduation dress because she loved design and fashion.)

However, group graduations are not a requirement. Vicki remembers officiating in a student’s backyard years ago. The local group graduation had limited space, so each family could only bring a few guests. This homeschooler had a huge family with many cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. They were a close-knit family, and everybody wanted to come. So, they had their graduation ceremony in the backyard. They sang music together. Vicki gave a short talk and presented the graduate with her diploma. The parents moved the tassel from one side to the other of the cap. Then she walked across the backyard as everyone cheered.

This is the wonderful thing about homeschooling: you meet your kids’ needs.

Then, the family that had a graduation ceremony in the backyard moved right into the party afterwards. So, let’s talk about graduation parties.

As you know, there’s not one right way to homeschool high school AND there’s not one right way to have a graduation party.

In fact, we feel like graduation party choices have a little bit less to do with the parents and more to do with the student. However, we have found that sometimes our teens are reluctant to have a party. When we explored it with them, we realized that they did not have tons of experience with big events, such as attending weddings. We found that it is important to talk things through with our teens, give our input, and in the end, remember that it is their graduation. 

With all that in mind, here are our teens’ favorite (and our favorite) graduation party ideas.

Sabrina recalls a wonderful graduation where several families pooled resources and had a party in her backyard. They had the food catered so that they did not have to make everything themselves. One of the extended family members agreed to rent a giant blow-up slide. It was a relaxed and fun day for everyone.

Vicki’s daughter only wanted for her and her good friends to go out and eat pizza together. So, after the graduation ceremony, Vicki gave her the set-aside graduation party funds and said, “See y’all!” 

The teens went to Pizza Hut and had a wonderful time. That’s what they wanted for graduation.

One of Kym’s graduates was absolutely adamant that there was not going to be a cake at his graduation “because people don’t want a graduation cake at graduation parties”.

Whatever his story about why “people” didn’t want care, Kym made sure there were brownies and soft pretzels instead. She said, “You gotta honor their preferences!”

When Kym’s twins graduated, she made a big poster board with pictures from their infancy through their growing-up years. People were supposed to guess which twin was which.

We love slideshows at graduation parties, as well.

You can see that there’s not one right way to hold graduation celebrations. For lots of practical tips, check the posts below.

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