4Real Forums: American Girl Club

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Topic: American Girl Club

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chicken lady
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Posted: Jan 19 2007 at 9:54pm \| IP Logged

I am posting this here, because Cay and Alice are my frineds and I know they will move it if they need to

I am starting an American Girl Club, and we are starting with Joesphina. What would you like your daughters to learn or do at such a club?

MaryM
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Posted: Jan 19 2007 at 10:30pm \| IP Logged

Oh Molly, we did this a few years ago (but only did it about 8 months) and I have just been thinking I would like to do it again. There are quite a few new homeschool girls in that age range who might be interested. And Josefina is our (my) favorite so who we would probably start with too. In fact Josefina was the one we enjoyed most when we did it before. We pretty much did projects from the Josefina cookbook and craft books - these are marvelous.

We always just tried to learn a little about the time period and geographic location where they lived and then concentrated on food and hand crafts.

For Josefina specifically we made:
tortillas
tamales
straw applique decorated boxes
"tin" craft frames
corn husk dolls

There are other crafts of the southwest I would love to include this time.

And then if you could throw in a field trip of some sort to place that related to the period of history in this country. I'm thinking local but if you dream big -how is this for a massive field trip - Rancho de los Golondrinas. They have specific Josefina tours - but the rancho is awesome and is exactly like what is described in the Josefina books (I actually suspect pictures in the books are from this rancho). And I would meet you there! It's only 6 hours from here.

I am happy to brainstorm with you. What a great idea!

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chicken lady
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Posted: Jan 19 2007 at 10:42pm \| IP Logged

Umhhhh looking for a rancho in Ohio should be fun

We have both of the mentioned books, I want a Catholic twist. Example we are making mantillas for the girls and their dolls!
Keep the ideas coming Mary

Cay Gibson
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Posted: Jan 19 2007 at 10:49pm \| IP Logged

Molly,
How wonderful!

I have been toying with getting an American Girl Club started through the library or at our local bookstore. My 9 yr old is consumed with these books and I know she really wants to get with other girls who share her love and enthusiasm of all things AG.

I'm anxious to see everyone's ideas and to hear how your club works out.

Chelsea did start an AG notebook and we began an AG timeline on large index cards. We cut out the AG from the catalogs, glued them on one side of the cards and on the back side Chels wrote down the time period and all the facts she knew on each girl. As she reads the books, she adds to these facts.

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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks

MaryM
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Posted: Jan 19 2007 at 11:59pm \| IP Logged

molly wrote:

Umhhhh looking for a rancho in Ohio should be fun

I knew that when I posted that's why I mentioned Santa Fe.

No, actually I was thinking for many of the other dolls most people could find something locally that fit the period, but with Josefina you are pretty much tied to the southwest.

For a Catholic angle to the Josefina handicrafts I would do santos making as one possiblity.
Marjorie mentioned getting her Altoid Antiphon Doors idea from this website where they made santos shrines. This would be a very easy and fun way to make santos with your club.

I mentioned the tin work crafts - we did modified tin work. It was actually that metallic covered posterboard they sell at craft stores that we made our "tin" frames from. You can also use the bottoms of disposable aluminum pans. We used leather punch tools to imprint the decorative shapes around the edges because that is what they use in the real tin work of the southwest. But you could use something like wooden skewers or thick toothpicks to imprint designs. This can then be used to frame religious art, which is what they would have been used for in Josefina's time.

Here are some examples of the straw applique - it is beautiful and as you can see often depicts religious scenes - especially if you go the decorative cross route (we did boxes).

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Mary M. in Denver

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