gift for 8th grade graduation

[luckey-lasvegas]

My DD graduates from middle school also this year, She never had a kindergarden or a 5th grade graduation so this celebrates the 9 long years of elementary school. To me it says you're off the porch an runnin with the big dogs now! We are going to have a small family BBQ at her grandparents and she is getting a new Ipod touch. I think that it's a nice way for the family to get together and show her that we are proud of the young woman that she is becoming. (for my DD she loves peace signs )

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

That is a great age to get a high end mountain bike. Learn about responsible ownership.

 

[pigletto]

My DD graduates from middle school also this year, She never had a kindergarden or a 5th grade graduation so this celebrates the 9 long years of elementary school. To me it says you're off the porch an runnin with the big dogs now! We are going to have a small family BBQ at her grandparents and she is getting a new Ipod touch. I think that it's a nice way for the family to get together and show her that we are proud of the young woman that she is becoming. (for my DD she loves peace signs )

EXACTLY. Here dd has gone to the same school from JK at 4 years old to Grade 8 at 14. There was no kindergarten grad, no middle school. It's a milestone for us.. and we'll mark it.
There's no limos or photographers. Just a ceremony in the gym, family and friends and a few awards. It's not over the top at all.

My dd is going from the only school she has ever known.. with a population of 240 kids in all grades combined to a high school with over 1500 students.
It is a big transition for her.

 

[branmack]

My dd is also graduating 8th grade. It has always been a big deal around here, I still remember my grade 8 graduation and want her to have the same memories. I got a trip to England for my graduation, unfortunately my daughter won't be getting the same thing. I don't understand the reasoning behind grade 8 graduation is expected? At our house so is highschool and college/university graduation that doesn't mean I won't make a big deal about them. My son is graduating Grade 6 and I'm graduating from college. It is a busy year for us!

My daughter is getting a Coach purse and probably a ring or necklace with her birthstone. She already has her dress and will be getting a mani/pedi as well as her hair done before the ceremony. We will either go out for a nice dinner or maybe invite her friends and family back to our house for dinner after the ceremony. She is in school till the end of June so lots of time to figure out the details.

Allison

What to wear to grade 8 grad is huge in my DD eyes. We already have the dress and scheduled a hair appointment. We doing the mani/pedi thing too.
We are going to Disney in a couple weeks and I hope them have some Disney grad stuff.

 

[rubato]

I find this little debate very interesting. I had my own internal debate for my son. He is "graduating" 5th grade and moving up to middle school. A part of me wants to celebrate it because he is my one and only child. But, a bigger part of me had to stop myself because I don't want my child to think that he should get special acknowledgement and treatment for something he should be doing anyway. I think I'm just going to let him know we're happy for him with a dinner out or something, but no celebration.

 

[I Believe In Magic]

I hope my 9th grade dd that also goes on here doesn't read this post.
She is very smart, all A's in 8th grade, and even though we went to Disney 2 weeks after school ended, it wasn't 'for her graduating'. Course I guess I could say it was now.....haha! I helped organize the huge 8th grade dance they had, that took months of planning and several thousand dollars, but I didn't get her an individual gift. I have 3 kids and every year somebody graduates from something, and when my ds graduated from hs we of course had a huge party, but that was a ton of work and I will do it when my next 2 graduate and that's it!! Doesn't mean I don't love them......

 

[aprilgail2]

I teach highschool also and our highschool kids do far more than use word processing software and print out things. My son has had a laptop since he was in 6th grade and he uses it nightly for homwork.

If a laptop is an option for the gift, I don't see where you can go wrong. As a parent you just have to limit the personal time they spend on the computer.

My daughter has had power point presentations to do since 5th grade and is always doing some kind of school related research a few times a week online-far more than just word processing though they are required to use that too. Many classes the teachers want the reports and essays that they turn into be printed out, not hand written.

Something a new high schooler will need is a graphing calculator. The TI-84 Silver Edition Plus (I sound like a commercial) is the big boy on the block and will see your student through high school and college courses, meaning that although you'll pay a big price, you won't have to replace it in a couple years.

That would all depend on where you are at because the school here are required to supply that for every student-they can not make a student be required to buy something that is that expensive. You can go to the library to do homework on their computers every night but there is no where to go o use a graphing calculator so the schools must by law supply them!

 

[billybobblockhead]

Being promoted from 8th grade to 9th grade is expected in my family and not really worthy of a celebration, IMO.

I see this as a kind of trend where kids celebrate graduating from pre-k, k, 5th grade ect...Just like every kid gets a trophy kind of thing, which I, personally, do not agree with, either. I want their HS and college graduations to be THE BIG DEAL and not, ho hum, for them.

These are things I expect from my children, just as I expect all A & B's on their report cards.

That being said, if you want to acknowledge it, I suppose a t-shirt or sweatshirt from the new high school would be neat.

Totally agree.

My dd is graduating from 8th grade. She's a great kid, has done well in jr. high and I'm sure will win a bunch of academic achievement awards.

Her gift is being allowed to go to 9th grade next year.

Once again, totally agree.

I guess "graduating 8th grade" is a regional thing and just depends on where you live. We do not have it here, but my MIL is appalled, aghast and horrified that we don't!! They are taking my DD14 and her cousin who is also graduating 8th grade to WDW this summer. That's okay, it's a fun tradition. But we don't have a ceremony or anything formal. The school has a luau themed Bon Voyage party, but that's about it.

Whether you do or not, really depends on what your kids' friends are doing. I'd never make my kid be the only one whose family refuses to celebrate the graduation that everyone else is!! If I lived where this was a big deal, I'd do something - nothing extravagant, but something fun and special. I like the idea of jewelry or something lasting, rather than cash. Even the Disney Stock is a great idea - I'd probably do that for my sons.

I'm guessing that you are correct on this one. This is something that I've never heard of until I clicked on this thread. All of this graduation/promotion stuff makes me think of Bob Parr's line about "graduations" in The Incredibles...............