Graduation Announcements? *cross posted*

[Lady Florida.]

If you don't frequent the Chat board you probably don't know me, but I'm a regular there (and you can see by my post count I'm not new). I thought here might be a better place for this post, though I'll  cross post. Anyway...

 

Graduation (this month) for ds is going to be anticlimactic. We always schooled on and off year round and never made a big deal out of promotion to the next grade. We usually just told people he was in whatever grade he'd be in if he was in school. For the past year and a half he's done dual enrollment, so we haven't done much at home. And finally, he's not going to have or attend any kind of ceremony. If we have any kind of gathering/party it will be mostly homeschool friends and a few local family members who attend.

 

For our nuclear family that's fine. We know he's graduating, he knows he's graduating, and we plan to give him a few nice gifts.

 

What I'm trying to figure out is how to send word to extended family. We are NOT trolling for gifts, but while all have either been supportive or not NOT supportive, few actually took the time to understand homeschooling. We just want to let them know he is graduating high school and moving on - that this is something homeschoolers do just as public/private school kids do.

 

I was thinking of just printing out some announcements on nice greeting card paper. The homeschool announcements I've seen for ordering online all have a party date and time, though I suppose I could just leave that off.

 

Have you done graduation announcements? If so how did you handle it? Any suggestions?

 

Edited May 2, 2016 by Lady Florida.

[SkateLeft]

Personally, we don't do graduation announcements. People where we live now in the upper Midwest usually do them, but they aren't done where we're from, so our friends and family there would think it was tacky.

 

I made a short video yearbook of each of my girls' K-12 homeschool careers, uploaded it to Youtube and posted it on Facebook for our extended family to see. That was sufficient for us.

 

I suspect this just depends on where you live. If your extended family would send you graduation announcements, then I'd think you could go ahead and send yours!

[Lady Florida.]

 

 

I suspect this just depends on where you live. If your extended family would send you graduation announcements, then I'd think you could go ahead and send yours!

 

Yes, it's common here. We have always received graduation announcements from family.

[plansrme]

We have received several that friends have made up by one of the Christmas card sites--Tiny Prints or Shutterfly or something like that.  It will have a picture of the grad on one side and wording similar to Kinsa's on the other, but then it often includes something about future plans, e.g., "Johnny Doe will be heading to State U in the fall to study botany."  Frequently, the picture is of the grad in a t-shirt from the school.  Of course, we did have the friend who committed to swim at a school, printed the announcement with a picture of her in the t-shirt, and then the school cut their swim program.  She quickly got an offer from another school, so they put a white label across her chest and printed it with the words, "Suzy is proud to be swimming for Different State U in the fall."  It is common here not to invite anyone to the ceremony because tickets are limited to 2 or 4 per graduate, but plenty of grads have parties and combine the party invitation and announcement.

[regentrude]

I have not done graduation announcements.

The family and friends we are close to knew that DD was graduating and entering college - because we are in contact and talk or at least exchange letters at Christmas.

I don't see a point in sending announcements to people that are so distant that they would not know that our kid is done with school and starting college. I can't imagine they care, if they don't care to keep in contact with us otherwise.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I have been looking online.  My favorites are at Tiny Prints, but I also looked at Snapfish and a couple other sites.  We just had some senior photos taken and the photographer will do up announcements.  (Once I made an account at Tiny Prints, I started getting 30% off coupons by email every few days.)

 

I will be sending announcements to extended family, because they have been in the habit of sending them to my parents and my in-laws.  This is my kid's grandparents turn to let their close family connections know about a big event (even if they aren't all MY close family connections).

 

 

Edited May 2, 2016 by Sebastian (a lady)

[G5052]

We sent out about 20 announcements to more distant family and friends who might not know otherwise. We said "no gift expected."

 

We also did a local graduation ceremony with a group. They provided an invitation to print yourself or send via email, and we just sent it via email. About  close 15 friends came, several with cards/checks, which were not expected but appreciated.

 

My next one is more into that kind of thing and may want something more customized, but we'll see.

[kewb]

Graduation announcements are not usually done in my circle. They are viewed as a gift troll. Everyone seems to throw small or large graduation parties.

 

We are throwing a small party for ds. He doesn't particularlly want one but I told him his family wants to celebrate. Especially his grandparents who are being denied the hours of tedious boredom of watching him graduate from the local high school.

 

Edited to add that I left out the helpful portion of post.

I think an announcement on nice paper or with a graduation picture acknowledging this milestone is a nice thing to do.

 

I would keep it simple with announcing the graduate and maybe something about future plans.

Edited May 2, 2016 by kewb

[J-rap]

Not sure the wording, since we have always held an open house.  (Very much the tradition here, which admittedly took us awhile to get used to!)  However, we did an invite that my kids thought was fun and was pretty inexpensive.  I took a photo of them (more of a candid shot look rather than super posed), and then changed it to black and white and had it very, very faintly in the background of a regular letter size paper (taking up the entire paper).  We then printed the words across the paper, on top of the photo.  I put together the original and then had a local printers print it out on nice paper.  

[Julie of KY]

Since I regularly get graduation announcements from extended family, I will send one also. It's more a way to stay in touch with my family.

It will be a simple announcement, probably with a picture. It may or may not have future college information on it. We are not trolling for gifts, but I know some will send.

[HS Mom in NC]

My kids have the option of participating in a huge homeschool graduation cap and gown ceremony.  They opted not to.  We just had a open house/party.

I get the occasional graduation announcement from people (not relatives) whose kids I haven't seen since they were in elementary school and who I haven't talked to in years because life led is in completely different directions.  I think them sending me an announcement is silly. It's nice and good intentioned, but why are they sending me an announcement?

 

We didn't do the graduation announcement thing.  We invited people though private message on social media and by phone who we wanted to attend the open house/ graduation party at our house.  I'm not into announcing things to people if they're not invited to the celebration.  If extended relatives are emotionally close but physically distant it makes sense, but our aunts, uncles and grandparents on both sides are local. I wouldn't add future plans to an announcement.  Kids at that age change their minds a lot and some adults can be really annoying about it.

 

We had senior photos done and one blown up with an inexpensive mat around it for people to write good wishes on it.  We had their senior photos in a very nice photo book along side their homeschool diplomas in a nice case or whatever it's called out for display.  (People often wonder what a homeschool diploma looks like.) People could browse and write messages as they ate and mingled.

I had copies of wallet sized senior photos for people to take with them.

[Mom22ns]

I've been struggling with this as well. With my first graduate we had a party, so we sent party invitation/announcements. However, dd does not want a party. I've been struggling with the "is it tacky to send an announcement without a party invitation?" question. I do have some family that would appreciate receiving the formal announcement, but the number is small and I just can't decide if it is worth it. I don't want to be seen as trolling for gifts but my MIL/FIL stand on tradition and may be hurt if they don't get an announcement and there are a few cousins (my cousins) who live far away, but who love my kids and would like getting a picture announcement.

 

I'm still debating, but if I do it, I will do something like Kinsa described on the back of a picture card.

[fourisenough]

My DD doesn't want an open house/party, but we'll send announcements with a senior picture printed on it, along with info about future plans. We're not trolling for gifts and are only sending to people who we expect will be delighted to receive one. They're very much the 'done' thing in our social circle (somewhat like photo Christmas cards).

[MorningGlory]

We ordered announcements from Tiny Prints using a few nice casual photos of ds taken by a friend photographer. The announcement includes info about son's future college and major plans...which have already changed! lol! 

 

I am *very* pleased with the quality of the announcements from Tiny Prints. Thick paper, nice envelope, smart design, just well-done overall. I was hesitant to order them, but now I'm glad I did. Because I used a coupon like Sebastian mentioned, they were not too expensive and shipping was free. Service was fast, too. We have a large extended family from all over; they will all by pleased to receive such an announcement. 

 

And my son doesn't want a party or open house. But we are going to take him to dinner at a special restaurant in the city. Some of his friends are having open houses, so he/we will go to some of those. I'm beginning to get the celebration spirit! (as soon as the AP Calc exam is over this week...)

[The Girls' Mom]

We did the photo card thing.  It just had her graduation year and her plans (headed to college as a German major) with a nice photo.  We didn't do a party or anything either..we just took her out for dinner with her papaw.  

[Kareni]

We sent invitations to local friends and family who were able to attend a ceremony that was hosted by a local homeschooling resource center. We sent announcements to distant family and friends who would be unlikely to travel to attend.

 

I browsed various online stationers to get a feel for format. Then my husband and I made our own graduation announcements and invitations. We included a color photo (that we had taken), and I must admit that they looked great. It was far cheaper than ordering from a company.

Regards,
Kareni

[Lady Florida.]

Thanks for all the responses. I believe I'm going to order from tinyprints. I'll create an account and hope the coupons start rolling in, then will order.

 

Since I regularly get graduation announcements from extended family, I will send one also. It's more a way to stay in touch with my family.

It will be a simple announcement, probably with a picture. It may or may not have future college information on it. We are not trolling for gifts, but I know some will send.

 

Yes, this is how it is in our family. It's common and everyone likes getting the announcements since sometimes we lose track of who is in what grade. We've always sent a monetary gift but we know it wasn't expected. Family will know the same is true when we send them.

[MerryAtHope]

If you don't frequent the Chat board you probably don't know me, but I'm a regular there (and you can see by my post count I'm not new). I thought here might be a better place for this post, though I'll  cross post. Anyway...

 

Graduation (this month) for ds is going to be anticlimactic. We always schooled on and off year round and never made a big deal out of promotion to the next grade. We usually just told people he was in whatever grade he'd be in if he was in school. For the past year and a half he's done dual enrollment, so we haven't done much at home. And finally, he's not going to have or attend any kind of ceremony. If we have any kind of gathering/party it will be mostly homeschool friends and a few local family members who attend.

 

For our nuclear family that's fine. We know he's graduating, he knows he's graduating, and we plan to give him a few nice gifts.

 

What I'm trying to figure out is how to send word to extended family. We are NOT trolling for gifts, but while all have either been supportive or not NOT supportive, few actually took the time to understand homeschooling. We just want to let them know he is graduating high school and moving on - that this is something homeschoolers do just as public/private school kids do.

 

I was thinking of just printing out some announcements on nice greeting card paper. The homeschool announcements I've seen for ordering online all have a party date and time, though I suppose I could just leave that off.

 

Have you done graduation announcements? If so how did you handle it? Any suggestions?

 

We did something similar--small gathering for family and friends. I wasn't going to send out announcements (because we weren't trolling for gifts either)--I was planning to just announce in our next Christmas letter. My mom informed me that this actually would not be acceptable, and that some family would be hurt at not receiving an announcement, and to not worry about whether people wanted to give a gift--to just let them decide that. So, I sent out announcements too! The announcements to those farther away did not mention the party and were printed on nice cardstock. We wrote:

 

We celebrate the blessing of our home schooling journey by announcing the 

High School Graduation of our son

 

[full name]

 

We thank God for the privilege of 

investing in his life and education. 

 

Please join us in prayer as he seeks the Lord’s direction in the coming years. DS will be continuing his education at [name college], where he plans to explore psychology, philosophy, and other possible majors.

 

In Christ, [our names]

[FaithManor]

We are having a party for ds for closest family and friends, but we have other acquaintances and extended family that we will notify with a simple announcement.

 

We have ours printed at Walmart. There are a lot of options, we can upload our own photos, and it is really inexpensive.

 

I did have one unusual problem with Walmart. I took ds's senior photos myself with a DSLR camera we bought him for a photography class he took to fulfill his fine arts requirement. I've been practicing a lot and have become fairly decent with the camera. When we went to order an 8x10 of our favorite pose - enlargements at Walmart are also super cheap and available with 1 hr. photo pick up - I had to run home and bring my camera back and show them the photo on the display (scan disk) because they thought it was professional, and I had not produced a legal release from the photographer. Though it was inconvenient, I was pleased that they thought it was done by a pro.

 

Ds's announcement is a collage of six photos with his favorite Bible verse on the front, graduation date, and name of the college he will be attending with major included. Those that are invited to the party get one that has printing on the back detailing date, time, and location.

[FaithManor]

Oh, as far as gifts, we have a lot of family members and acquaintances whom we do not exchange with at Christmas or birthdays so they would not feel compelled to give a gift at graduation, but do want to keep in touch so the announcement is appreciated. I think to some degree this is all based on local and family culture. I know families who exchange for everything and would absolutely feel either joyful with regards to give a gift or obligated. So I can't speak to whether or not it would be considered a "gift grab". It all depends on your own micro-culture.

 

 

[Julie in MN]

We enjoyed making our announcement.  We must have sent out 50 or more, including ds's friends.  Friends exchanged grad photos of one kind or another - ds's announcement was his grad photo.

 

We created a 5x7 announcement at Walgreens, with several pix taken by a friend plus a childhood photo for a cute comparison.  The Walgreens announcement had the year and a "graduate" banner already on it, so we just added his name, the name of our school, and a little fun because ds likes fun:

 

Received Every Award

(in a class of 1 student)

 

For those whom I worried about appearances, as far as asking for gifts, I placed a sticky note on the announcement and hand-wrote:

 

No party,

No gifts!

 

In some cases, I added a comment on the sticky note about how I thought they would enjoy seeing his accomplishment, or how we appreciated their part in his life.

 

One more thing:  Be sure your student is prepared to write thank-yous for every announcement sent out, just in case (cards, address book, stamps, decent pen, etc.).  That's a big project during a busy time, so talking about it in advance can be helpful.

 

Congrats,

Julie

[katilac]

I have not done graduation announcements.

The family and friends we are close to knew that DD was graduating and entering college - because we are in contact and talk or at least exchange letters at Christmas.

I don't see a point in sending announcements to people that are so distant that they would not know that our kid is done with school and starting college. I can't imagine they care, if they don't care to keep in contact with us otherwise.

 

It's a fun reason to take and send updated pictures! 

 

I have a book of graduation photos (wallet sized) that goes back 30+ years. 

 

Some old friends have sent me their kids' graduation announcements. Although I may not have known for sure they were graduating that year, I definitely cared and very much enjoyed the announcements and the pictures. Getting updates on old friends is always good in my world. 

[razorbackmama]

We got announcements from homeschooldiplomas.com and just customized the wording. They have lots of different samples for different situations.

[plansrme]

 Getting updates on old friends is always good in my world. 

 

Agreed, and it makes me a little sad that people don't send out graduation announcements for fear that they'll be interpreted as a present grab.  I know my friends well enough to know that they're not trolling for gifts.  I'm genuinely happy to see a little reminder from someone I used to know that the little tyke I remember from when her mom and I were co-workers 15 years ago is now graduating high school and doing X, Y and Z afterwards.  

[FaithManor]

Agreed, and it makes me a little sad that people don't send out graduation announcements for fear that they'll be interpreted as a present grab.  I know my friends well enough to know that they're not trolling for gifts.  I'm genuinely happy to see a little reminder from someone I used to know that the little tyke I remember from when her mom and I were co-workers 15 years ago is now graduating high school and doing X, Y and Z afterwards.  

I think the main thing is to know they audience. Don't send an announcement to people who won't appreciate it, so if in doubt, probably do not mail the thing.

 

We sent out all of 35, and they were all to the people who will stick it up on the refrigerator and enjoy the photo. We didn't send to the larger group of people we know well like many, many individuals of my parents' church, or to 4-H colleagues, etc. Since family newsletters are not the norm within either of our family cultures, graduation photo announcements have been a fun way for everyone to see what our young adult kids' plans are. So grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and then very, very close friends only. 

 

i agree that it might be superfluous in family cultures where extended family write often, do the Christmas card thing, send school photos regularly, see each other often, or communicate a lot on facebook. Dh can't have facebook due to security clearance at work, I ind the drama to be too great to consider making that a primary mode of communication, and I'm frankly quite terrible throughout the year at sending cards or writing letters. Occasional phone conversations sometimes happen, but often not simply because all of our families have kids very busy with lots of extracurricular activities which keep us hopping, and many work 60-80 hours a week at salaried jobs where the threat is to do less is to be unemployed. So catching someone at home is rare unless one waits until bedtime. For us, the graduation card thing works. It is the one time I somehow manage to sit down with a stack of envelopes, an address book, and a bank of stamps and send out a photo of my kid. That probably says a lot more about me than anything else, sigh....