Homeschooling the Teen Years - Creating a High School Diploma

I had some time this weekend, so I decided to print-up and add the finishing touches to A(age 18)'s "official" high school diploma.  She has one coming from our local homeschool association, ordered from an print company, that we'll present to her at the homeschool graduation, but this is the one we'll use in our private, home ceremony, and have notarized (which is why it isn't signed yet) to present to her dual-enrollment college before they can issue her an associates degree for her credits earned there.

I had really wanted to have some fun with our home diploma...

… but in the end, I decided that since it's going to the college, and since we'd like them to take us seriously, we'd better be good and play it straight.  Sigh.

I searched "homeschool high school diplomas" and grabbed one from images that I liked, to use as a template.  Then, with my own high school and college diplomas as a guide, I cut and pasted things around in paint, and typed in our personal information in a font as close to the template font as I could find (there are plenty to choose from in paint).  I would have added a verse to the bottom, but the template I chose already had the one I wanted (Col. 3:23), so I didn't even have to do that.

You can order a diploma, pre-printed and personalized, or you can create one completely from scratch.  I liked having the copy from images as a template just to keep size and placement in mind, and so I didn't have to look up how to curve words, but it could certainly be done.

You want it to state what it is, to have the date of graduation, the graduate's name, your homeschool name, if you have one (I simply put from the J-- Family Homeschool, since we don't have an official school name), and that it certifies the graduate has completed the study required (by your homeschool) to graduate from high school.  I also added our city and state.  Again, you can look back at your own diploma, or check for examples online, just to make sure you don't miss any details.

You can also buy special, heavy-weight, paper to print your diploma on from just about any office supply store.  I tea dyed a light weight piece of card stock (I think it was part of the packaging from one of the boys' dress shirts) for G (age 19)'s diploma, when it was her turn...

… but this time, I opted for plain old typing paper (though I did add a gold foil seal sticker for an aesthetic touch).  As to size, all of our other diplomas are about 5''x7'', but this time I chose 8.5'' x11'', to leave plenty of room for the foil seal, and the notary stamp (which, as I mentioned, the college wants to see in order to count the diploma as official).

While I was ordering the seal stickers from Amazon, I also ordered a diploma case (I like the ones that come with a plastic sheet to cover the diploma), and a "grad" tiara  (since A hates the mortarboard, and I didn't get to have any fun with the diploma).  It ended up coming with a grad sash and eight grad party pins too...

… so we're all set!

It's great to be a homeschooler.