Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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Meredith
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Posted: Oct 21 2006 at 9:50am | IP Logged Quote Meredith

For the many of you who have run or participated in a Little Flowers or similar Catholic girls club, I'm looking for ideas!!!

Alice...do you use the manual and do you follow the plan set forth in the order, ie. Sunflower and St. Catherine of Siena, or rather do you try to work with the liturgical year and kind of mix it up???

Would love any thoughts I'm going to have our first meeting at my home on Nov 4th so wanted to get a jump start on planning. We're going to have a very light tea, and do a or some crafts depending on the virtue/topic covered and that's all I have so far
Much Love and thanks for help!!

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Posted: Oct 21 2006 at 2:58pm | IP Logged Quote rm4mrfrus

Meredith,
We just started a LFGC about a month ago! Well, my friend started it and we volunteered our house for the meeting place! So far we have started with Sunflowers and St. Catherine of Siena and then moved this month (Oct) into Ivy and St. Monica. For St. Catherine we dipped candles and made beeswax candles and made a flower wreath. For St. Monica we made a puffy heart (with stamped ivy and a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on it) and a rose scented sachet decorated with various holy card pictures. We also did a service project which entailed making personal size pizzas for Fr. for his freezer. (He loved that one since he does not take the time to cook.) Our leader has altered all of these activities from the manual as we have a younger group. My dd is the oldest at nearly 9 and the rest are about 1st and 2nd grade. We have 5 little girls so far. Our priest blessed the group on St. Therese's feast day and we got a couple more girls who said they were interested, but nothing has come from that so far.

What has been a neat side effect of starting a LFGC has been that the Moms of the other girls have taken a great interest in catechesis in general. 2 of them are very recent converts so the leader and I have been passing things along to them. One week we got all of our saint books together and shared them with the ladies. books like Once Upon a Time Saints and Fr. Lovasik's ( I think) saint stories. And the Mary Fabyean Windeatt ones...all these were new to the Moms.   So we're hoping it is good for the Moms as well as the daughters!

God Bless you for taking it on! I know that it is a lot of work and organization! Maybe we can all share ideas each month?



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Meredith
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Posted: Oct 21 2006 at 4:13pm | IP Logged Quote Meredith

This sounds great Hollee, thanks for your ideas, your group sounds lovely and just the kind of ideas I was looking for! I appreciate your sharing!

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Chari
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Posted: Oct 21 2006 at 9:50pm | IP Logged Quote Chari

Meredith, Both Robynn Frame and Erica Sanchez have lots of experience. And, I am not jealous either.......not at all.

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Posted: Oct 21 2006 at 10:49pm | IP Logged Quote Lavenderfields

Meredith, have you joined the yahoo group for Little Flowers, it is full of great ideas here is the link http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LittleFlowers/?guid_84525814/U RL]. We have always just done from beginning to end of each book. But, I have been thinking lately it would be nice to use it in the liturgical year. You can choose anyway that works best for you, you are leading it . Have fun.

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Posted: Oct 21 2006 at 11:02pm | IP Logged Quote chicken lady

WE have a fantastic LFGC here in Steubenville 50+ girls age 5-12. The mom who organizes it is awesome, she has involved the various religious orders locally to run the games and crafts each week, they also do small talks on the various virtues. Sometimes we pitch hit (the moms that is) to do the crafts, but I'm such a dork I volunteered and I did the wrong virtue    my dd's were soooooo embarrassed!!!
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Posted: Oct 22 2006 at 12:09am | IP Logged Quote MaryMary

Robynn,

I couldn't seem to access that site from the info you provided. Would it be possible to provide a link? I would LOVE to get more ideas for LF.

Our group is currently on Wreath 3. Our craft ideas for this wreath are a bit - er - anemic, so I would love to find out what other groups are doing. There are more Old Test. saints included this time around (Mary and MArtha, Ruth and Naomi). We try to bring in the liturgical year through the crafts (if we can't think of a craft that highlights the virtue or the saint). This month was a stretch, as we had a difficult virtue to get across to the kids (Eutrapelia). All in all it went well, though. We have a younger group as well, so we are sure to add in some games to keep things lively and help communicate some part of the lesson. For example, this month our saint was Mary, sister of Martha. After we discussed the saint and the virtue, we divided the girls into two teams (a Martha team and a MAry team). We played a 'Jesus is coming for dinner' relay race where the girls had to bring play food from the "market" (a basket at one end of the room), to the "dinner table" (a designated place in front of their team). It was a riot!

I would also recommend the CD's that are available for each wreath. It contains all of the Scripture verses (to be memorized) put to song. I really struggled to have my (little) girls memorize the verses until we found this resource.
   
Meredith, don't be afraid to play around with the program to make it suit the needs of all those involved, we sure do!

Let us know how it's going!


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Posted: Oct 22 2006 at 9:32am | IP Logged Quote alicegunther

[Note, I literally fell asleep while writing this response last night! It should have been sent after Meredith's question: Alice...do you use the manual and do you follow the plan set forth in the order, ie. Sunflower and St. Catherine of Siena, or rather do you try to work with the liturgical year and kind of mix it up???]

Hello Meredith and Hollee!

I have been running a "Little Flowers" group for seven years now. Some years, I have used the manual (it's a great program), and others, we have done our own thing--usually because I love celebrating the Liturgical year.

Nowadays, I have expanded the group to include the boys. It was just too heartbreaking to leave out all those adorable brothers! Our group spans the ages of 2 to 13, with my daughter Agnes and her friends (mostly 7th graders) running a Catholic prayer and story hour for the little ones while the five to ten year olds do a craft.

So far, this season we made Guardian Angel/Archangel spoon dolls for the feasts of the angels in late September, Franciscan Birdhouses, and five out of twelve Jessee tree ornaments so the children will have a complete set ready for Advent.

It is so much fun and such a grace for our family! Meredith, you are the PERFECT person to run a group like this. Wouldn't I love to have you here to co-direct ours?!

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Posted: Oct 22 2006 at 9:37am | IP Logged Quote alicegunther

rm4mrfrus wrote:
God Bless you for taking it on! I know that it is a lot of work and organization! Maybe we can all share ideas each month?



Great idea! I am always eager to get inspiration from you wonderful mothers!

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Posted: Oct 22 2006 at 11:07am | IP Logged Quote KC in TX

alicegunther wrote:
rm4mrfrus wrote:
God Bless you for taking it on! I know that it is a lot of work and organization! Maybe we can all share ideas each month?



Great idea! I am always eager to get inspiration from you wonderful mothers!


Wonderful idea!! We are involved in Little Flowers and Blue Knights for the first time. The mothers (and sometime fathers if they are not deployed) are taking turns teaching each lesson. I'm hoping we can evolve the group a bit to start incorporating more of the liturgical year. I will definitely be back soon for ideas since I will be teaching my first class (is there a nervous emoticon?) in January.

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Meredith
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Posted: Oct 22 2006 at 8:13pm | IP Logged Quote Meredith

Oh, such wonderful ideas from everyone and Alice honey, you need more sleep

I knew you'd come thru for me and your ideas sound lovely and just up my alley, and you are much too kind, it is I that would be honored by you to chair along side you, we'll just have to share ideas and thanks to everyone for such great ideas.

Love and hugs, God Bless!

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alicegunther
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Posted: Oct 23 2006 at 6:36am | IP Logged Quote alicegunther

Meredith wrote:
Oh, such wonderful ideas from everyone and Alice honey, you need more sleep


True, too true! Trying to find computer time without taking it away from my seven darlings keeps me up too late at times! : )

I do think we would have fun running an LF group together!

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Posted: Oct 23 2006 at 5:46pm | IP Logged Quote Jenn Sal

Thinking ahead a little...This Thursday, we will be having a Tea & Luncheon to celebrate the completion of Wreath I. We are a new group and followed the book this year. Maybe these ideas will be something to bring up for the next Wreath. I think we just wanted to get a feel for how it is done and to see how the girls interacted. It was a wonderful year!

I'm planning the T&L. I used the T&L Manual for some ideas. I also looked up the history of Tea's. What a beautiful thing to do with your children. I try to have a "Tea Tuesday" with my kids (do to an idea from Elizabeth Foss ). But to get dressed up, act like Our Blessed Mother Mary is with you and keep your virtues as a focus makes it an even more beautiful tradition.

They just came out with laminated Saint cards for Wreath I & II. I'm having each mother decorate a mini photo album and insert the cards. The cards are nice and have the virtue plus the memory verse printed on them. I have to admit, that I went out and purchased the really nice ones with the Saints prayer and/or history to mirror the other ones. Hopefully the girls will add to it and keep forever!!!

We are also doing love letters to mother and daughter as well as spiritual bouques.

Good luck! I have to say that, I have gotten as much or more out of focusing on each virtue than maybe the girls!

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Posted: Oct 23 2006 at 7:49pm | IP Logged Quote Meredith

OhJenn Sal, your ideas sound wonderful and I love the idea of the mother daughter love lettes, how very special! Thank you for sharing your year and may God Bless your day on Thursday!

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Posted: Oct 23 2006 at 7:52pm | IP Logged Quote Meredith

alicegunther wrote:
So far, this season we made Guardian Angel/Archangel spoon dolls for the feasts of the angels in late September, Franciscan Birdhouses, and five out of twelve Jessee tree ornaments so the children will have a complete set ready for Advent.


Alice, dearheart, a couple of questions...I will no doubt be copying your beautiful craft ideas (what's new, eh?) but for the group how did you come up with the Jesse tree ornament selections, how many are you all making and do you have patterns???
Also, do you charge for crafts or is there a set dues fee for each of the girls??? Also, do you provide the manuals at the first meeting or have them purchase their own separately, or are they even necessary for anyone besides the leader?
I so appreciate any help on this as we are just getting rolling!
God Bless and thanks a bunch

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Posted: Nov 28 2006 at 11:16pm | IP Logged Quote KC in TX

Okay, everyone. I need some craft ideas. I am seriously craft challenged and I teach my first class in January with many more to follow. We are doing Wreath II and are on St. Clare (Joy). Any ideas?

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Posted: Nov 29 2006 at 9:56am | IP Logged Quote Christine

When we learned about St. Clare, we made monstrances. You can make simple ones, using construction paper or you can make them a little bit more elaborately, using cardboard or another medium. The girls placed a picture of Jesus in the center of the monstrance. I am sorry that I did not take any photos.

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