High School Graduation — made easier
Pick and choose which of these tips apply to the school your child is graduating from. Ours graduated from small Christian schools that had time to make a somewhat elaborate graduation ceremony; or you may choose to use some of these ideas for parties or open houses that you may give for your student.
During the summer, before senior year
Sort baby pictures, narrow down to about 40 to choose from later. Also, try to decide upon a song for a senior DVD. (If you can’t do this during the summer, it’s still best to try to do this by December.) Remember that sometimes churches have you sort photos for their celebration so you may need to have about 5 for that. It is a really special gift to give your graduate.
Senior Photos
October seems to be a good month for senior photos. It’s also fairly decent weather for outside shots and for &ldqou;good hair&rdqou;. Set yourself a deadline on when to place your order so it won’t drag out and become stressful. Don’t forget about frames.
Journal
Begin looking for a journal (& a pen to attach) for the students to autograph if they like that or if you want a guest book for a graduation party or open house.
Who’ll Attend?
It’s also great to begin deciding on who you will send invitations to. (I finally put my list on the computer to save it for future graduates (and weddings.) It also helps to write out who will be receiving photos — and note that down if you tend to forget. It also helps for future graduations. I felt it was not too informal to print out mailing labels for graduation and thank yous — this list helps also for Christmas cards as well.
Graduation Attire
Don’t forget to have your student pick out (or purchase) graduation attire for student (and parents, if you wish). Also, be looking for JSB dresses for student (and Mom).
Invitations
We order ours from a printer (usually it takes about 2 weeks or less — don’t forget to allow for time needed to address the envelopes, etc.) If you will be making them, Target has great supplies and prices (so does Hobby Lobby — and their thank you’s are fairly cheap.) There are also online printers that have nice stuff. We also have ordered return address labels for our student that are cheap, but this year Dad printed them himself. One daughter knew her college mailing address before the invitations were mailed, so we printed off the address and included it in the invitations.
Memorabilia Table
Begin thinking of what you want to do for a possible senior memorabilia table. We prepared a place at home the same size we were going to have at the school and took a photo of it on the cell phone to take with us so all we had to do was quickly put it together that morning at practice — all decisions were already made at home under no pressure. You may wish to think of a Bible verse to include for your student. Bob and I also wrote letters to our graduate to give to them on the day of graduation.