fairfarmhand Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 (edited) Dds graduating this spring. We're in a homeschool group that is putting on a graduation for the seniors. One thing we're running into is that so many of the ideas are so somber and serious. I get it. It's a big moment and I want our kids to know we're praying and to take their future seriously. What we're running into is this. My dd has some huge nerves about this whole launching process. She's already taking it seriously and she's already scared. She's hoping for her graduation to be upbeat, fun and encouraging. The whole "serious" thing will probably end with her sobbing in the bathroom and humiliated because she's crying so much. Is there a way to mesh the two visions? HELP! Edited January 7, 2016 by fairfarmhand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2att Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Is there a way for it not to be entirely planned by the parents, but to give the graduates a planning role as well? I mean the parents can choose the speaker or do the videos of their kids through the years (that generally make even complete strangers cry), but could the graduates pick the music, bring beach balls to toss, or something else to ease the stress and heaviness a bit? I've planned several graduations for homeschool groups, and one thing we've done to give the graduates a voice is to have them write their intro in the program. They could write a poem, give a shout out to people who helped them, give a famous quote, whatever. I've had everything from short, sappy poems to thank yous to the family to Dr. Who quotes and song lyrics or Bible verses. They are all printed in the program and give each graduate a bit of creativity and individuality. Also, I've encouraged the graduates to do something fun as they go on stage to receive their diploma. Most are generally too nervous to do so, but some snap selfies, reveal a superman shirt under the ubiquitous gown, do a dance or even a back flip. It eases the tension and makes everyone laugh. The trick is to get the other moms to agree to give the graduates a say. I think with homeschoolers we feel it should be about US as well, and not without reason, since in many cases we have been teacher, principal, guidance counselor, and everything in between. But it can't be all about us--this is a special day for the graduates and they should be able to have a say in the celebration. Best of luck and enjoy the rest of this milestone year! Senior year is a roller coaster, to be sure! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 I think it's possible to strike a balance. My first thought is to have the seniors provide input in what they want their graduation to be like. Other ideas (in no particular order) You can do the traditional cap & gown ceremony, I think, which does lend an air of dignity and recognition to their accomplishment. The key will be in what people who are part of the ceremony say - they set the tone. Choose joyful people to emcee, read bios, whatever they have as part of the ceremony. If you have a keynote speaker, make sure it's someone who loves teens and/or college students and who has a talent for speaking to that age group. Tell them you don't want a speech full of heavy advice - that you want a speech that is celebratory in tone. You can have a "commissioning prayer" to send them off. Have great, fun recessional music if you have them march in/out. You can allow the graduates to pick the color of their gown so that they pick something that is more personal to them. Barring that, you could allow them to pick the color of their tassel (this is what was done at ds' ceremony, everyone had black gowns but picked their own tassel color). Allow them to "dress down" under their gowns - require respectful attire, but not necessarily suits, ties & dresses. I mean, really, jeans or shorts and a shirt are fine under there! Allow them to decorate the tops of their caps if they want to. If they want to do something like all wear the same crazy socks, go for it. If you have a small enough group, allow applause as each graduate is announced. If you are doing refreshments afterwards, keep them light, but fun. Maybe have a cupcake decorating station or an ice cream sundae bar. These things are messy and require clean up, but they are also really fun for the participants. You can have more than one station to help speed things along. If you want to have a full on party atmosphere, then you could start with a reception and then about 45 -60 minutes in, put on music that the kids like, encourage people to dance, chat in groups, etc.. Find a volunteer to be a barista and offer them simple drinks during this social time. When my son graduated, the kids handed the mom's roses and it was really sweet. You could do that, or, you could switch it out and have them hand off a balloon or something fun. Give the audience small bottles of bubbles to blow at the graduates during the recessional. When everyone is arriving at the graduation, have the parents write out one of their hopes/dreams or a prayer for their kids and tie it to the string on the bottom of the helium ballon. Have the graduates write out a goal or something they are thankful for (use different colored balloons for grads/parents). Keep the balloons in a separate room during graduation. During the recessional, a volunteer hands out the balloons (they can release their own if you label the outside of the note clearly, or they can just take one), everyone goes outside and the balloons are released and caps are tossed. For my son's graduation the parents wrote a short bio to be read as the graduate received their diploma from the parents. You could do this, but tell the parents to include fun facts as: -When Johnny was five, he wanted to be a mailman and his favorite color was orange. Now, he's off to xyz university to study xxx and his favorite colors are, of course (whatever the college colors are). -Or have them include a short, funny (not embarrassing) anecdote. - Milestones could include the usual academic milestones, but also things like: Judy received her first traffic ticket at the age of seventeen or At the age of 12, Susan earned the privilege of hosting her first ever sleepover Joe cut the grass for the first time at the age of 12, boy am I going to miss him when he goes to college! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 Is there a way for it not to be entirely planned by the parents, but to give the graduates a planning role as well? I mean the parents can choose the speaker or do the videos of their kids through the years (that generally make even complete strangers cry), but could the graduates pick the music, bring beach balls to toss, or something else to ease the stress and heaviness a bit? I've planned several graduations for homeschool groups, and one thing we've done to give the graduates a voice is to have them write their intro in the program. They could write a poem, give a shout out to people who helped them, give a famous quote, whatever. I've had everything from short, sappy poems to thank yous to the family to Dr. Who quotes and song lyrics or Bible verses. They are all printed in the program and give each graduate a bit of creativity and individuality. Also, I've encouraged the graduates to do something fun as they go on stage to receive their diploma. Most are generally too nervous to do so, but some snap selfies, reveal a superman shirt under the ubiquitous gown, do a dance or even a back flip. It eases the tension and makes everyone laugh. The trick is to get the other moms to agree to give the graduates a say. I think with homeschoolers we feel it should be about US as well, and not without reason, since in many cases we have been teacher, principal, guidance counselor, and everything in between. But it can't be all about us--this is a special day for the graduates and they should be able to have a say in the celebration. Best of luck and enjoy the rest of this milestone year! Senior year is a roller coaster, to be sure! There are five graduates. My dd is one of the "fun" personality ones. Two or three are VERY serious young people and may not appreciate my dd being silly. (I like these kids. They do though, tend to gravitate toward more serious or formal things. Nothing wrong with that, but it's definitely not my dd's personality) Will it bother the other "serious" moms for my dd to kind of lighten things up? I don't know.... I keep telling my dd that I don't want this to be about me or the other moms. It's for her and the kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seasider Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Slide shows of baby pictures are always a lighthearted addition for the kids (though they are pretty sure to bring a tear to moms' eyes). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Let the students plan it . :D they are graduating. They can pick their speaker , theme etc. a video of pictures is always fun and a piñata makes everyone laugh. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seasider Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Yes let the students plan much of it. Give them guidelines that will meet parents' needs (it's a milestone for us, too!), but lots of leeway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamiof5 Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Kind of hard when there's only 5, and 3 are very serious. Have they been together in the same homeschooling group for a while? What about a slideshow with cute (and hope some funny ones) of activities, fieldtrips and such? Loved the idea about the fun food (ice cream bar and such). Lively, bright, fun decorations? For our oldest graduation party I made a poster board collecting lots of pics of her growing up until highschool, she loved it and still has it. Just some random thoughts... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjand6more Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 (edited) At ds's graduation everyone picked the color gown and tassel. Also, some of the graduate's moms decorated the top of their caps. One that was cute was an outline of Tinkerbell and it said, "never grow up". Cute. Kind of like this. They posed with their caps for photos. It was emotional but fun for them. My ds said no way. Too serious, lol! I loved seeing theirs though. Lots of ideas online. Have a great graduation. Edited January 7, 2016 by rjand6more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almondbutterandjelly Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 At our church graduation luncheons, each kid gets a table to decorate with whatever they want. Senior photo, areas of interest (one girl had horseback riding stuff on there), letter jacket (ooh, or a mum would be cute), anything to represent them. We also had a baby picture slide show. So cute! Could each kid pick their own song to be played (well, a small portion of a song) when they walk up to get their diploma? Decorate graduation cap, definitely. The serious kids don't have to, but they might like to. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supertechmom Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 (edited) I left it completely up to my son. He decided to forgo the ceremony and instead had a huge bash. He is not the serious type, knew what he wanted to do, and saw no reason for cap and gown and long drawn out ordeal. We invited everyone we knew, friends, family, the mailman, seriously everyone we could think up. We served up burgers and hotdogs, a few close friends brought over some sides and helped out a little with the food. I made him a deal though that he had to let me get senior pictures with his honor cords and a cap. We put up for display his scholarship letter, his diploma, the senior pictures and draped it all round with honor cords. And I got to play in the background pictures from his baby years to his senior pictures. Then, we partied! The kids brought over various game systems, we pooled all the tvs, controllers, games etc we could, they linked everything up and played all sorts of video games until dark and then they played flashlight tag, ran the fire pit, and had smores. Then a few card games. It was a big bash that lasted till the wee hours. I think a few spent the night. Wasn't at all what I wanted him to have. I miss not having the cap and gown and the walk and all but he remembers all of his friends seeing what he had done, a brief review of his life for the family, and playing like a kid before he left for college! I wouldn't have had it any other way now. It was the perfect topper to his school career. Maybe you could do the walk and then party at your house?? Might take some of the serious out if she knows it is going to be a fun time afterwards?? Edited January 7, 2016 by Supertechmom 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicMom Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 I was one of the "serious" kids and I actually didn't do the walk/cap and gown because of that. I was homeschooled and the other graduates were all of the silly bent, and I thought it would be embarrassing. So I just had a party. I haven't regretted that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 When my daughter "graduated" from the resource center where she had taken many classes as a homeschooler, there were fewer than a dozen fellow graduates. Each student created a photo slide show to their choice of music; these were generally a lot of fun to watch. I think they had a time limit of about three minutes. Also, all of the students had an option to perform. Some students played an instrument (some invited others to be a part of their combo) or sang or both. Others performed a dance piece or a skit. My daughter read a poem in Latin and in English. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Five kids? I would find a way to give each kid or family a short time slot (five minutes maybe) in which to do something. I mean, structure it - it could be a slide show as suggested above, it could be a mentor or parent speaking about the grad, the grad speaking themself - whatever. And have someone do an intro, do a procession, do the serious stuff. But that way, if someone is more lighthearted, they can have lighthearted slides and speeches and if someone is more serious it can be a more serious set of images and speeches. And the whole thing is encased, so to speak, in an organized feeling ceremony. I used to teach at a small Quaker school. Graduation was always a called Meeting. Graduates had to be silent (bwahahaha... you wouldn't believe how many parents started their words to kids by saying, "Ha! You have to be quiet and just listen now!"). A teacher gave an introduction, "Kid name, you were so blah blah blah. You really blah blah blah. Everyone appreciates these strengths about you blah blah blah. You're going on to such and such endeavor or college." Then there was a period of silence and just like at any Meeting, anyone who felt moved to speak could, but to the student. Eventually, their silence would end and we'd move on to the next student. It was always really serious and somber (nothing like silence to make you feel the moment) but also funny and moving - great stories were always told about kids. It was always really beautiful. And then afterwards, we'd party it up with cake and music and so forth. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tina Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 all of our students get a 3-5 minute (depends on how many graduates there are/how long you want the graduation to be) power point slide show of their life from birth to graduation. A great chance to share funny pics as well as all the interests over the years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.