Homeschool Diploma - A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

I was so excited when I learned that I would be reviewing the Vintage Diploma with the optional add on Cap & Gown package for Homeschool Diploma this year because...

This is the year my baby graduates our home school high school, and I want it to be special!

My first student graduated in 2003. Our home school support group had a graduation ceremony, and I got some nice graduation photos. There was no actual diploma awarded. I didn't know anything else about graduations. I knew some people gave their kids parties, but I didn't know how to manage that and it didn't happen. I regret that now.

My second student attended a private school for her senior year. Leading up to graduation day, my mom was in hospice care. Sadly, the day of graduation, my mom died. As you can imagine, while we tried to make a big deal out of graduation, there was no party. 

There has been an 11-year gap between graduations in my home. My youngest has been an "only child" in home school his entire life. I've had plenty of time to consider how to celebrate his graduation. My situation is different now (than previous graduations) in so many ways, and there would be no excuse to let this wonderful event go by without the appropriate celebration!

So I was excited to learn I would get to review Homeschool Diploma's Cap, Gown, Tassel and Diploma! 

We're going to make a big deal out of this graduation! We're not a part of a home school organization that is having a graduation ceremony this time, but we are going to have a very special graduation party/family gathering for our young man! Homeschool Diploma gives great information on just how to do this. On their blog they have articles about What Makes a Homeschool Graduation "Truly Meaningful", Where to Have a Homeschool Ceremony, Having a Family Graduation Ceremony, and Hosting a Homeschool Graduation Party with Family and Friends.We are planning to have a Family Graduation Ceremony followed by a Graduation Party with Family, and my son is still considering whether or not to include friends.

Our oldest will be flying in from Denver for the event.

My middle daughter and her husband will be driving in from another state to help us celebrate.

We also might go out for dinner, or we might serve a nice dinner at home. We will definitely have a nice cake! And my son will be presented a very fine diploma in a very formal way!

Let me tell you about this wonderful diploma! I have concealed name information for privacy reasons. Our beautiful diploma has a black padded cover that is gold-embossed. It has a beautiful emblem that states "Thy Word is Truth: Scholarship/Christian Education/Godliness". Below the emblem it has our home school's name, and our student's name in the lower right hand corner.

I ordered the Vintage-Style High School Diploma, which is one of the Standard Diploma options,  with foil embossing. The diploma says my student has successfully completed the course of study required for graduation and is thereby being granted this high school diploma with the date and a place for his father and I each to sign. The lower center has an "Excellence in Home Education" seal. I was most excited to be able to include a special seal that says "High Honors" because my student worked so hard and got such excellent grades in high school. I did a search to see which "Honors" seal I could award my son based on his grade point average, and I awarded him appropriately.

In addition to the diploma itself, we were able to get a miniature, a laminated wallet diploma that our son can carry to pull out to show when he is asked if he earned his diploma. I wanted him to have this wallet diploma, and this reminds me of a dilemma many home school students encounter when they graduate: when they are asked if they earned their diploma they aren't sure how to answer. Yes, they graduated, but no, they did not receive a diploma. For this reason I was glad I would be able to award my son with a diploma!

I also ordered a spare diploma to keep filed in case anything ever happens to the diploma I give to my son on graduation day.

In addition to the diploma, my graduate has a gown and a cap with a tassel that he will wear when we award him his diploma. I love that he will get a tassel! I graduated after summer school and never had a graduation ceremony and never had a tassel. All my friends had tassels that they hung from the rear-view mirrors of their cars, but I didn't. My son will have his graduation tassel. I think it is fun for our home school graduates to get to have graduation tassels! Oh, and in the bottom photo my son asked, "Shouldn't the diploma be signed?" I answered that it would be signed when he finished in May, before we present it to him formally.

For the photo, my son did not know to wear the tassel in front! I love that the cap and tassel came with instructions on how to wear the tassel. Before the diploma is awarded the tassel is worn on the left. After the diploma is awarded the graduate moves the tassel to the right.

If you are home schooling high school, I want to strongly encourage you to plan to make a big deal out of graduation! Our kids will only graduate from high school once. As home schoolers we do not want our kids to feel like graduating was no big deal. It IS a big deal, and we should really make a big celebration out of the event! Homeschool Diploma makes this easier to do. In addition to the Cap, Gown, Tassel and Diploma, they also offer graduation announcements, rings and gifts, and a very helpful blog! Take a look!

In addition to materials to celebrate high school graduation, Homeschool Diploma also has materials that can be used to create celebrations from Kindergarten and 8th Grade.

Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew also reviewed the High School Diploma, the 8th Grade Diploma and the Kindergarten Diploma. To read more reviews, please click the button below.