This past Thursday we had our very first Little Flowers Girls’ Club meeting for the new year!! This year the girls will be working on Wreath II and all of the meetings will be in the afternoon and hosted at my home. It’s going to be a little cramped in my small home, with 12 girls, but that won’t matter too much, right!?! Plus there is plenty of room for them to run around outside, after the meeting, unlike at the bookstore…
Just like last year, we began our meeting with the prayer to St. Therese and the Acts of Faith, Hope, and Love. We then reviewed a little bit about our dear St. Therese.
(using Father Lovasik’s book as a guide – Amazon is still offering a 10 pack of this great book for only $1.50!!) and then I read the Helen’s Special Picture. (It is such a sweet book! Amazon charges a small fortune
for it, but I was able to purchase a copy from the Divine Mercy Gift Shop.)
Another great resource for this meeting (or for further review at home!) is Glory Stories Jesus I Trust in You! : The Story of Saint Faustina Kowalska.
Following the lesson the girls began making their notebook pages. I included the memory verse for Mercy, The Divine Mercy Chaplet Prayers, a quote from the bible, and the prayer to St. Faustina from the Little Flowers CD.
Here are the links to the St. Joseph’s Lily and the image of St. Faustina that I choose, and my sample page: (You can download my document here.)
The girls did a lovely job putting together their notebook pages. Here are their completed pages:
This year I decided to have the girls do an additional craft at each meeting. For this virtue we made Guardian Angel Bracelets, since Angel’s are often messengers of God’s Mercy.
And yes, I thought I was all prepared, ordering craft kits ahead of time… However, one of the other moms and I had lots of fun trying to use our fingers to make a loop out of the pin used to make the angel, since i didn’t have a pair of needle nose pliers handy… Next time I will read the directions for our craft before the meeting! 😉
Snack time was next. Just like last year I assigned the moms to help with the snacks. I took the first month, in order to have it done before the baby arrives… We had Divine Mercy Strawberry Shortcakes with Lemonade! (Lily Sandwiches would be another great option for this meeting!)
I realized a little too late that I missed getting a group photo of the girls… Perhaps in two weeks at our next meeting!
Jesus I trust in You!
What lovely ideas you've had. Is the Club an alternative to Brownies and Guides?
The Little Flowers Girls' Club is a Catholic program for girls ages 5 and up (though I do have a couple 4 year olds in my group) based on learning Catholic virtues through the lives of Catholic saints, Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I think it is an excellent alternative to Brownies.
You can read more about our group here.
I agree Jessica! My 5 year old is starting Little Flowers Monday and she is so excited. It is great for those of us (me included) who do not exactly like to camp!!! I am VERY excited about the tea at the end of the year. I told me husband "camping NOOOO, but a tea party – THAT I can do 🙂
Hi Jessica,
Your first meeting looked great. Such awesome pages!!
Now, I have question for you. Our first LF meeting is this coming Friday and this year I am co-assisting with wreath I (5-6 year olds) that are new into the group.
One of our ideas was to have a table cloth with each girls hand print pressed around the edges, their names and a scripture or saint quote written in the center. We have a candle that they will decorate and use at each of our meetings. We thought the girls would love having their own special prayer table.
We are stuck on what to write though. We have some verses we like but I was wondering if you could add a suggestion?
Thank you Jessica. It's not like you have "nothing" else to do but to get request from strangers..(wink wink).
God bless,
Elizabeth
CA
Your work/planning is so impressive. Have you had a chance to order the Catholic Girl's Guide by Fr. Lasance?
If not, I would love to get it for you. It's the least I can do for all you've done for my family in the way of your sharing and inspiration.
Please contact me if you would like to take me up on the offer. My parish book store has copies available.
Pax Christi –
Lena
Jessica, I don't know how you manage to do it. These are some beautiful ideas! I kinda wish my boys were girls so we could do this club 😉 You are such an inspiration to us all!
You will have a great time with 12 girls. Don't worry about the space. We had 20 some Little Flowers in my small house (every other month) for four years. It was wonderful!
Dear Jessica,
I am always insainly jealous when I read your Little Flower posts ♥. I always wish We had one here for our girls.
You did a great job organising this and I love the Gardian Angel bracelets.
God Bless
SO CUTE!!! I'm so grateful that you share your creativity.
Quick question: How long does your lesson last? I'm working on mine early this week, and I just wanted a ball park idea.
Thanks, friend!
I so enjoy reading your Little Flowers posts, Jessica! (I think I've said that in the past …) I think I am going to look for a group in my area for my girls, but something in the back of my head says, "Or you could start one." Which scares the heck out of me! LOL
Anyway, everything that you do for your family is so beautiful and loving. You are an inspiration! God bless you always!
Elizabeth ~ What a neat ideas you have for your group!! As for a quote, I am not sure what I would write either… Were you thinking along the lines of something St Therese said, or something from the bible??
Lena ~ That is so very sweet of you!
Gae ~ You could totally have a group with just your girls!! That was my plan when I decided to start last year… I never imagined I would end up having so many girls. (Most have to drive 30-40 minutes to get here.) Nevertheless, I would be using the program with or without a "group". =)
Aimee ~ Our lesson lasts approx 20 minutes. It's about all the little girls can sit through.
Sarah ~ YOU CAN DO IT!!! I was nervous too, but it really isn't that hard. In fact, if you do start a group and decide you want to do notebooks as well, I could even email you my documents. =)
Oh, and Kelly, there is a group called "Blue Knights" put out by the same company. My boys were in it for 2 years, and I am hoping that a new group will start back up — they miss it!
Jessica, Each time I read one of your Little Flowers posts, I so wish we lived near you!
Hi Jessica,
Thank you and yes we are excited about this year's group. The girls from last year have moved up to wreath II. So now we have 3 groups from 6 pre-teens, 9 7-10 yr olds and 8 new 5-6 yr olds (their very first year). Luckily our group is blessed with great moms who share their talents. It's going to be fun for sure.
As far as the prayer table, we were thinking of saint quotes and/or scripture verses. There are so many wonderful ones to choose from though. I did feel that it should be something the little ones can learn or at least be inspired by.
These were some quotes we were looking at:
1. "Christ has made my soul beautiful with the jewels of grace and virtue. I belong to Him Whom the Angels serve".
~ St. Agnes
2. "Joy is prayer. Joy is strenth. Joy is love. Joy is a net of love with which we catch souls".
~ Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
3. "It is not how much we do but ow much love we put in the doing that makes our offering something beautiful for God".
~ Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
What do you think? There are several from St. Therese too…
Elizabeth
CA
Her from
Elizabeth ~ Here are a few quotes from St. Therese that came to mind earlier:
"The goal of all our undertakings should be not so much a task perfectly completed as the accomplishment of the will of God. "
"Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing."
"Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love."
Though I must say that I LOVE the one you have from St. Agnes. Beautiful!!
Thanks again for sharing your lessons and ideas! I'm responsible for the September meeting and we don't have our books yet. I figured that you'd have details up and I thank you for it!
Just a huge thank you for all of your work Little Flowers. Your ideas have helped our group so much. God Bless you and your family.
I'm going to start your notebooking pages with my girls this week. They'll be a great addition to what their doing with their Little Flowers group at our parish. Thank for making these available for everyone to use, Jessica. I'm sure it's a lot of work!
Are these still available? I'd love to organize our little flowers girls to do these at each new saint
thanks
Hi Elena! The notebook pages are now available directly from Behold Publications. You can find the pages for Wreath I here.
Good Morning! I hope you are able to read and respond to my question soon because I am preparing for the talk for tonight.
I am having a hard time finding what the connection is between St Faustina and the lily. I do not know what the lily represents. Please help me out on this.
Thanks and God bless!
Hi Miranda, Perhaps you could email the author of the program or the publisher to ask about why she choose the lily for St. Faustina. I believe (at least in general) White lilies symbolize purity and virtue. I hope your talk goes well this evening! God bless!