4. {10 Days of ... Blogging Series}

Today is Day 10 graduation celebration for the updated 10 days series for planning a homeschool graduation. Also, look at more ideas on my how to homeschool high school page.

With all the planning I had done prior to the day, I didn’t want the day to be focused just on taking care of our guests’ needs, but on savoring the moments of being with all of them.

I think in either trying to save a buck or hosting the evening events that Mr. Senior 2013 wanted, I could have easily been more stressed out about the evening.

Who wants to do that? 

By planning way ahead with the details, I avoided most of the stress that comes with our big day and was able to relish the company of family and guests.

But especially the time I had with my dear homeschooling friends like Cynthia and Kelley that have been there through thick and thin is what the day is all about. I love those girls.  We are called the 3 amigos at times.

Sure, it’s your kids day, but I also realized that many other genuine and caring homeschooling families influenced my son in a positive way.  

Thank You hardly seems adequate. 

For their nurturing, I am forever grateful and it was a time for reflection by me and my husband.

(Receiving graduation gift from Grandma)	(Mr. Senior 2013 thoroughly enjoying himself)
(Sweetest sister ever with the sweetest voice for the special day.)	(the thinks-he-is-suave-and- debonair look) Do you think our homeschool kids lack for confidence?

The most important thing to us though we realized was to enjoy the whole evening.

Funny how things you imagine just don’t turn out like you think they will, but better. 

Graduation Celebration

 All the planning and prior thinking that my son was going to have an acceptance speech and a power point displaying his school work during our homeschool years just didn’t matter anymore or happen.  

Most of our friends now are homeschoolers and for sure all of our family knows and ended up supporting us because they knew it was now our way of life. 

I wonder if I was influenced in the beginning with the “think-I- have-to-prove-I’m-homeschooling” mentality that I have fought many years to avoid. 

I guess we just never completely eradicate that thinking.

From the cake table that I tried not to make girly

to the diy decorations and photobooth

	(bubble blowing contest)

to the special night with family and friends

(small, but close group of homeschooling friends)

all that mattered that night was celebrating the end of his homeschooling journey.

Thinking back now to when we started homeschooling in Kindergarten, I almost got through this series without too many tears. 

Now, I cave and I’m not all that tough, but grateful as his mom that I was given the privilege to teach him. 

Celebrating the Homeschool Graduation Day

Not only do I cherish him but I cherish my role with all my children.

I have given myself permission to shed another few tears for the happiness and sheer satisfaction of sticking with homeschooling even through tough times.

Without embarrassing my first born, I do want to say what a privilege it was to be his first tutor. 

I always think I am going to start off anything more brave than I actually feel at the moment.

What I do know is that homeschooling has been the hardest task I have ever had.

  It has been exhausting and challenging in more ways than I can count. 

More Homeschool High School Graduation Planning Resources

• Start the Planning Day 1.
• High School Senior Portraits Day 2
• Invitations Day 3
• Graduation Menu and Party Venue Day 4
• Home Graduation Ideas Day 5
• DIY Decorations Day 6 
• Table Decoration Ideas Day 7
• High School Graduation Gift Day 8
• Free Editable High School Diploma Template Day 9 

But, I have never regretted it as my firstborn sets out on adulthood.

Thank you for letting me share with you our family’s most celebrated homeschool moment. 

I hope you have enjoyed this series as much as I have enjoyed sharing with you. 

Today is Day 9 free editable high school diploma template for the updated 10 days series for planning a homeschool graduation. Also, look at more ideas on my how to homeschool high school page.

For me, the best part of planning Mr. Senior 2013’s graduation was all the details. 

And creating the high school diploma was one of the crowning moments.

Funny how things don’t always turn out as you dream, they are going to be when you get to this point in your journey.

I had always thought that I would buy a diploma because it would look so much more “professional”.

Editable High School Diploma

But after preparing his editable homeschool high school transcript that is quite professional, it was just natural to go ahead and make my own diploma too. 

Why give that moment to somebody else?

First, below I left the way I shared this editable diploma with you years ago which is to download a picture and use Microsoft Word.

However, since that time, I have prepared a diploma in a editable .pdf which you can find at the bottom.

If you want, purchase a timeless cover to put the diploma in. We chose the royal blue color that my son liked.

The final copy of the diploma turned out to be something we would be proud to give him, and hubby was certainly proud to sign it. 

I had kept it together pretty well up to this point but didn’t do so well that night before. Tears just flowed as I created it. 

I gave myself permission at this point to cry and figured if I cried at home in private then at the party the next day, I wouldn’t cry (it didn’t work).  Don’t you just hate it when you cry in public?

Too, maybe when you’re at this point you realize the finality of it all.  

I kept pinching myself to remind me that its not the end of his journey, but the beginning of his adulthood. 

Focusing on that part I was excited for him and able to put the final touches on the party.

The day before the graduation, everybody started rolling in to help.  My sister has a beautiful voice and sings and so she was in charge of setting up the sound system.  She and I picked out special songs for her to sing that night and for Mr. Senior 2013. 

Homeschool High School Diploma Template

I grew up with her singing country music and classical music in our home.  I wanted my son to savor some of our times together as she prepared her music.

Everything was getting in place for the next day.

I will be sharing pictures from the day of the party or my final post on this series soon.

But today I have something special for you.  I am sharing the diploma I created and a tutorial so that you can edit it and use it for your big day.

Instead of making this an editable .pdf, I am giving this to  you in a .png format or picture format.

Download here High School Diploma to be edited in a picture format. 

Right click and save it to your device.

The main reason I am giving this to you in a picture format is because in Word you can manipulate the text boxes and you can’t really do that in an editable .pdf.

Remember my blog post where I showed you how to edit labels for your pantry? 

This tutorial is kind of similar but I am doing this just a bit different to give you greater flexibility. 

This is kind of long only because I have added lots of pictures. I need lots of pictures when I am trying to learn something.

Here are the steps:

1.) You need to download all the free fonts I used so you will have them and don’t forget to download the diploma picture too before you start.  Be sure you remember which file you put the diploma in.

Here are the free fonts to download before you start:

2.) Open Word.  And the first thing to do is change the page to landscape because diplomas normally run landscape and mine is no exception. 

Click Page Layout and Choose Orientation and Click Landscape. Easy enough.

3.) (Note: I don’t want to confuse you, but I changed the paper back to portrait just for this lesson.  Instead of having such a wide picture for you to see and learn with, a taller pic is easy to see. So keep your page landscape.)

DIY Homeschool Diploma in Microsoft Word

Then Click Insert, click the Shapes button, and select New Drawing Canvas at the very bottom.

Look at the picture below to see how it looks on your page.   It is a blank box or canvas.

4.)  Now this part is a tad bit tricky because you will need to be sure that you copy/paste the diploma/picture into the box. 

If you don’t paste it in the box, you won’t be able to move the picture or send it to the back which is important to do because you will be putting text on top or in front of this picture. 

See Picture in Step 5 of how the box looks like when its easier to move.

Go grab the diploma now and right click to copy.  Come back to your page.

Put your cursor in the middle of the box and right click and hopefully your picture will be in the box.  Sometimes Word gets wonky and gives you a hard time because the picture won’t be in the canvas box.

So again the tricky part is not copying/pasting the diploma form you saved, but being sure it does not go above or below this canvas box you just made, but IN it.

More Homeschool High School Graduation Planning Resources

• Start the Planning Day 1.
• High School Senior Portraits Day 2
• Invitations Day 3
• Graduation Menu and Party Venue Day 4
• Home Graduation Ideas Day 5
• DIY Decorations Day 6 
• Table Decoration Ideas Day 7
• High School Graduation Gift Day 8
• Free Editable High School Diploma Template Day 9 
• Graduation Celebration Day 10 

A couple of tips: You can double check to see if the picture got in the canvas box by clicking below or above the picture to see if the canvas box lit up.  Look below at my picture that is wrong.

I did it wrong on purpose so that you can see when I pasted the diploma in, I didn’t do it correctly. To check if I did, I clicked in the area below the picture and my canvas lit up below it.  If that happens to you, just delete the picture and put your cursor back in the canvas box and try again.

If you accidently delete the canvas box, create it again too.

After one try, I got it back in the canvas box and knew it was in there because the box moved easier now. 

To see how easy it moves now, click on it and you should see the 4 cross arrows and it will move easy. See picture under Step 5 to see how it looks too when moving.

And also the canvas box was no longer below or above the picture when I clicked the empty space.

5.) It is important at this point to go ahead and size the diploma on your page by pulling out the corners shown in the picture below.

You want to get it the right size on your page because you will be sending it to the back or behind text and putting your text on top.

Tip: Don’t pull it out all the way to the edge because not all covers are the same size. Like me, you may have to trim your diploma after you print it so that it fits in the cover you want.

So leave one side a little wider so you can only trim one side when you need to cut it down a bit.

More Creative Solutions for High School Posts

• Creative Solution for Homeschool High School When Life Happens
• Best High School Homeschool Curriculum Packages (Accredited and Not Accredited)
• 25 Great Homeschool High School Science Curriculum
• How to Make A Homeschool High School Transcript & Middle School (Free Editable Form)
• Free Editable High School Diploma Template Day 9 of 10 Days Of a Homeschool Graduation

It may take a few trial-and-error times on this because everybody will get a different jacket or frame size for that matter. You may frame it instead of putting it in a cover.

6.) Now that you have it just so on your page, its time to send it to the back so you can start the fun part of making this your own by editing.

Click on the picture and the FORMAT tab lights up and you can click the drop-down menu Send to Back as shown on the picture below and choose Send Behind Text.

7.)  Now it’s time to make this yours by adding text or your state or country to the title.

Click on Insert then choose WordArt.

You see that third choice over on the top row where the text is arched? Click that one.

Another box opens. 

Click the arrow on the right side and a drop menu shows and find the font Gregorian and choose it.  Then type in your state or country.

Click OK.

8.) Find the WordArt you just did.  On my page, it put it down at the bottom of my page.

Go there and grab it and move it back up to the place it suppose to be on the picture.

Then move the WordArt back and forth until you get it to line up with the other text. 

Also, change the font size in the WordArt box.  Keep moving the box around until it is pretty close to where you like it.

That’s it. Take your time.

9.) For the rest of the text boxes and because they are not arched, you will basically be following the instructions I gave you when I showed you how to edit the pantry labels. 

Instead of making this tutorial any longer because I already showed you how to make the text boxes in my pantry post, I am giving you that link to the labels for the pantry so you can follow it to create the other text boxes for the diploma.

Remember to choose the correct font for the text boxes from the free fonts you just downloaded for this diploma.  Move those text boxes the same way by positioning them on the picture where you want the information.  Play with the size of the fonts until you get them just like you want them.

Click Print and Baby, you have a smokin’ hot FREE and UNIQUE Diploma!  If you’re real crafty like my sister and probably the majority of people, but not me, you could make your own unique cover for the diploma too.

My last post will be coming up soon on this series because THE DAY was just like I thought it would be when we finally had the graduation party!

How to Get the Free Editable Diploma in a .Pdf and Not Word

Finally, how to grab the free lesson planning pages. It’s a subscriber freebie.

 1) Sign up on my list.
 2) Download your freebie.
3) Glad to have you following me now and look for my emails in your inbox.

Today is Day 7 table decoration ideas for high school graduation for the updated 10 days series for planning a homeschool graduation. Also, look at more ideas on my how to homeschool high school page.

Two more things the Mr. and I did to make this day special for our son was to make the table top decorations and to make a diy photo booth back drop.

Actually, one of my best friends, you remember the one that I had the 25th anniversary party for, well she did the beautiful table top decorations. 

I found the idea on pinterest and got the material and we tweaked it to fit our needs.

Table Decoration Ideas For High School Graduation

Supplies for the table top decoration

• Letters for your graduate’s name and numbers. We chose the sparkly glittery ones because they were just prettier. We picked them up at Hobby Lobby.

• White graduate hats are miniature Kindergarten hats from Oriental Trading Company that I ordered previously.
• The roll or diploma are paper towel rolls we started saving. We only had 15 or so tables to do along with the gift table. So we asked everybody to save their paper towel rolls.
• Then the wire used for sticking through plants or flower arrangements we used for holding up the numbers and the letters.
• Some ribbon and some paint for the paper towel roll.
• Some vases from the dollar store that have a wide mouth or top.
• Some beads and a few dried flowers for inside the vase. You don’t need much, just add a little color because you don’t want to take away from the top decoration.

Originally, we had planned to use the kindergarten hats unfolded to sit on top of a glass. 

But, after measuring again because I wanted my guest to be able to see through the arrangement to visit with each other, we decided to only use the top part of the graduate hat.

DIY Table Top Decorations for High School

So that was one mistake I made on calculating the decorations because we could have easily used a stiff board, but then again the graduate caps ended up being more sturdy.

I knew I would make a few mistakes along the way but I think the arrangement came out great.

My girlfriend and her daughter actually put them together the day we got in to decorate.

It took some time to put the wire through the letters and then to curl the ribbon, but that didn’t take long in the whole scheme of things.

Then, I had to get the Mr. involved because I knew we were going to have a photo booth and props.

The building had concrete white walls like a lot of facilities and I knew I wanted something with more color and the colors of our party.

We ended up using a purple table cloth and a hanging beaded curtain from Hobby Lobby.

More Homeschool High School Graduation Planning Resources

• Start the Planning Day 1.
• High School Senior Portraits Day 2
• Invitations Day 3
• Graduation Menu and Party Venue Day 4
• Home Graduation Ideas Day 5
• DIY Decorations Day 6 
• Table Decoration Ideas Day 7
• High School Graduation Gift Day 8
• Free Editable High School Diploma Template Day 9 
• Graduation Celebration Day 10 

Since we couldn’t hang anything on the walls, I got the Mr. involved and he made a stand or fake wall so that I could hang the decorations on.

We found this video on YouTube showing us how to make our own photography backdrop.  Actually this idea is great for any DIY photography guru.

Colorful Table Decoration Ideas for High School Graduation 

The Mr. built it over the weekend and we took it the day before the party and set it up.

Then I used one of the table cloths that I borrowed from another friend of ours and used clothes pin to hang it up on the fake wall stand.

I had the photographer pull back and grab this picture so you could see the whole get up.

I actually ended up loving this picture because it is industrial looking with a fun twist.

DIY Photo Backdrop

Between bungee cords, some industrial strength clips for holding up the table cloth and a white drop cloth for the floor, it made one fun back drop.

Of course lining up some ideas with photo props at the party helped too.

The photographer was able to take part of our homeschool gang and this was just a small part of our gang but they didn’t all fit in the picture.

So I told him to pull back and show the sides. I think it makes the picture so much less perfect and I love this picture.

Grandma and grandpa got into the fun too. We picked up the masks and accessories at the dollar store.

Everybody got in the mood once we started.

And the backdrop looked great even when we had a contest so see who could blow the biggest bubble. Mr. Senior 2013 was the only one who could blow a bubble.

Of course, the photographer is loving all of this.

I had bought picture frames from both a thrift store and Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off.

And we won’t so easily forget his special night because a touch of mom and dad and dear friends made it special.

I hope these ideas spurred some diy ideas for you when the big day comes for your sweet bunch and it will!