Some thoughts upon my first homeschooler's graduation. . .

There are so many questions people ask me regarding homeschooling my kids through high school. This is my first experience with it, so I thought I might share some thoughts!

DIPLOMA: People wonder, will she have a diploma? (for whatever that's worth!) Yes, we ordered her a diploma, which will probably proudly sit in some filing cabinet somewhere for the rest of her days, haha! BUT I know that's important to some people, so feel free to read this post on where and how we got a diploma.
It really is a nice looking document, the pragmatist in me, though, really wonders what the actual value of a diploma is--I more focus on the transcript (nice segue into the next topic, right?!) :)



TRANSCRIPT: Where does she get her transcript? Well, I (as her teacher/admin) created one for her! What is a transcript, anyhow? It's a list of the courses, credits, and grades that she has earned. I kind of obsessed a little bit over this one, hearing thoughts from many people giving lots of different advice, but finally just asked a couple of college admissions offices (including the one which she wished to attend) what they were looking for on the transcript...and designed one...and it's been great. It is very basic and has served her well for the different things that require transcripts--from college admissions to scholarship applications (internal and external of the college). [Here's another post to check out more info about how I made her transcript]

SCHOLARSHIPS: What about Scholarships? Well, yes, she applied for many, many different scholarships, and got some of them. It kind of feels like a part-time job applying for all of them :) My suggestion is to start at the beginning of their senior year, as many of the scholarship deadlines are early in the fall.

GRADUATION: What about a ceremony? We are opting to not do a ceremony, as we are not a part of a homeschool group, but instead we are having a big backyard party and inviting about a million people :) (or so it seems!)

:)  Well, those are my thoughts as of today!  How about you? Any suggestions or additional  thoughts about graduating a homeschooled student?