Graduation Plans

We are in the final countdown to our first homeschooling graduation. 43 days to our last day of schooling at home, one more week until JT's last community college class ends, evaluations on May 8th, graduation party planned for June 9th. How is this possible?! Isn't he still just a baby?

There is still quite a bit to do before we can cross the finish line. A month or so ago, I was at a planning meeting of the youth group committee at our church and realized I needed to pick a date for JT's graduation party to avoid scheduling conflicts. I decided June 9th seemed like a good day because it was early enough in the summer and would hopefully avoid vacations for our friends and family. Once I picked the date, I started to wonder if we'd have the diploma from PHAA in time. I am planning to have a short diploma ceremony at the party and it wouldn't be quite the same if we didn't have the physical diploma yet. Guess I should have thought of that before picking the date. I'll keep that in mind for EM's senior year.

I sent an email to our evaluator to ask about time frames for diplomas. She said we'd need to give them two weeks to a month from the date of the evaluation. Our last day of schooling will be April 27th, but JT won't have his final in his sociology class until May 2nd. Not long after that we will be leaving for a week at the beach. Before I picked the random date for the party, I was planning to schedule our evaluation toward the end of May. Now I needed to move that meeting much sooner. With vacation in the way, and the time crunch for diploma delivery, our evaluator suggested coming in May 8th. I told her we wouldn't have JT's final grade for his college class by then, but she said she can submit the diploma request without the grade, adding that to his transcript later. But now I will have a serious time crunch for portfolio prep during the last week of April and first week of May. Yes, I know I can get most of it ready in advance, it's just not the way I'm used to doing it. Oh, and I'll also need to be packing for a trip at the same time. Shouldn't be much potential for stress...

At least I'll be able to sit on the beach and do nothing for a week in the middle of the insanity.

Something else that occurred to me in the last month was the fact that it might be a good idea to get some senior pictures taken. It slipped my mind up until now, possibly because the last time JT had school pictures taken was in 2nd grade. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to make the attempt myself, or pay someone else to do it. One of my friends did her daughter's senior pictures herself and they turned out very nice. In fact, when she tried to get them printed at Walmart, the clerk was asking for proof that she had permission to print them, assuming they were professional pictures. Unfortunately this friend lives four hours away or I'd be asking her to take them for me. As soon as we have some nice weather, I'll take JT out and try a photo shoot. If things don't go well, I have a few local photographers I can try instead. I'd really like to get a picture or two in the woods since our time together has been focused on hiking so much lately.

There will also be the need to make graduation announcements, find a graduation gift, and plan the actual party. I'm thinking the next few months are going to be on the busy side.