So you want to start your own Little Flower Group?

This is my advice for starting your own Little Flowers Group.
1.  Ask your priest if it is alright with him if you start the group within your Parish or chapel community.
2.  Buy the starter kit from Behold Publishing.  (I suggest you start with Wreath I no matter the ages of the girls). I suggest the complete starter kit with Leaders Guide, CD, and Activity Book.
3.  Make copies of each Virtue Checklist in the appropriate color. For example Wreath I, St. Catherine of Siena, virtue faith, color yellow.  All checklist for St. Catherine of Siena are in bright yellow. 
4.  Purchase a large binder to hold all the colored checklist, corresponding saint coloring sheets, and memory verse for the Wreath you are working towards.  Separate each Saint and corresponding sheets with dividers for easy quick access especially as girls join the groups at different times or miss a class.
5.  Create a memory verse sheet for each saint to be studied.  Include a small colored picture of the saint and the complete memory verse from the song. These are very handy when you play and practice the saint song at each meeting.
5.  Create a sign up sheet for the first few classes that requires the parent to give their contact information. Creating sheets ahead of time looks more professional and help me to remember to ask for that information.  Communication is key to success.
6.  At the very first class: introduce yourself, establish a set meeting time (I suggest twice a month for one hour meetings) and the time allotted for each meeting (we kept our meetings to one hour which was excellent and parents appreciated we always kept things moving and productive.  BE FIRM about keeping all meetings with the set time limit).  BE UP FRONT WITH PARENTS AND EXPLAIN THEY MUST BE INVOLVED WITH THEIR DAUGHTER AT EACH MEETING. EACH PARENT AND DAUGHTER WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR TEACHING ABOUT A SAINT AND PROVIDING A CRAFT THE RELATES TO THE SAINT .  This is so important. Delegate responsibility not only because it takes pressure off the leader but because each girl and their parent take ownership of their faith and catechesis!
7.  Meeting Agenda:  Our meetings, begin with prayer, introduction to the saint, craft, snack, practice song, dismissal prayer.
8.  Second Meeting, model how you want the meetings to go by you volunteering to teach the first saint, activity, and bring snack.  At the end of this meeting, have each parents sign up to teach a saint and bring snack.  We found it was just easier if a family was responsible for everything for one night.  This worked out BEAUTIFULLY for us.  I was amazed at the ideas that came from each family for their saint activities!
9.  Plan out any service activities and big events you would like to see happen within the first 3 meetings.  Time moves very quickly when you are only meeting bi-monthly so stay on top of things. Sketch out the schedule for the year being careful to monitor holidays and days off of school.  We met on Monday evening even if the girls had a holiday from school, because we found it easier on the families to keep things consistent.  CONSISTENCY IS KEY!  If you are not consistent you look like you don't know what you are doing or that this is not an important group.
10.  Create a blog to share ideas, pictures, and information with not only your group but other Little Flower Groups from around the world. 
MOST IMPORTANTLY PRAY!  PRAY HARD, PRAY OFTEN, PRAY!  Many blessings.  Don't forget it isn't you doing all these things but the Holy Spirit working through you.  I have so enjoyed the time I spend with our Little Flower Group it has been much more spiritually uplifting than any other group I have been involved with.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini.  Our Little Flowers planted flower seeds to work on the virtue of industry.  We talked about how St. Frances Xavier Cabrini was the first canonized American Saint. She was a Saint who worked very hard opening hospitals, schools and orphanages all around the world.  The girls planted flower seeds and decorated their flower pots.  The leader explained that the flowers would only grow if the girls took care of them, watered their plants and placed them in the sun.  We tried to explain to the girls that the results would not happen over night but if their were industrious they would eventually see the fruits of the labor when their plants finally blossomed.  Leah, Jodi, and Audrey did an excellent job choosing this activity for our St. Frances Xavier Cabrini project!

 

 

 

 

Wreath I Posters

Our Little Flowers made these posters to represent the saints and virtues we studied this year.  We will hang our posters around the room on our last day, as we celebrate the petals earned at our Tea Party.  The girls had so much fun at our mid-year tea we have decided to end the year with a final tea party and craft day.  I am excited for the girls to receive the petals they have worked so hard to get these past nine months!

St. Bridget

 Our St. Bridget of Sweden class began with a quick reading of St. Bridget's biography, pictures of the Bridgettine Order that St. Bridget founded.  The Bridgettine Order wear a distinctive religious habit symbolizing the five wounds of Christ. 

Next the girls each received a 5 x 7 artist canvas with a Narcissus flower already outlined in pencil.  The girls then got to use watercolors to paint the area around their flower or in the middle of the flower. The color for the St. Bridget petal is light orange but the flower is the Narcissus which is white.  The color white is often associated with St. Bridget because of her purity of heart. 

The virtue for St. Bridget is truthfulness.  We ended our night practicing our bible verse: Sirach 6:5, "A kind mouth multiples friends, and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings."

Thank you to Evie and her mom for providing us with a special craft to keep in remembrance of St. Bridget and truthfulness.

Our Last Month!

We are in our final month before our Tea Party and badging ceremony.  The girls are working hard to earn their last few petals for Wreath I.  May 5th, Evie will present St. Bridget for the petal of truthfulness.  On May 15th, we will have our final Tea Party and petal presentation.  Work hard little flowers to earn all your petals!

St Joan of Arc Necklaces!

St. Joan of Arc

Virtue: Obedience

The girls enjoyed picking out the symbols and pictures for their own personalized necklace.  Each necklace had the words: immediately, without complaining, cheerfully, and completely to remind the girls that they must remember these things when they are being obedient. The necklaces were extra special since they resembled the dog tags many of the parents wear proudly to work everyday.

Little Flower Mardi Gras Fellowship!

 

In honor of the virtue, Love of Neighbor, our MAFB Little Flower Group hosted the Mardi Gras Fellowship for our Catholic Community.  Thanks to the hard work and sacrifice of our Little Flowers (and their mothers) we had a very successful fellowship with games, donuts, and coffee. 

Despite the lack of heat on a -40 degree day I would say we had a very fun time together.

 

The tables were set up in a large cross pattern to give the most room for people to sit and have access to the five activities.  The room was decorated with yellow, green, and purple table clothes, beads, and tissue paper pom poms.

                                     The mask making table with stickers, feathers, and ribbons.

Halo Saint game (thank you to other Little Flower Groups for the idea!).  A family used pool noodles and wrapped them in yellow duct tape so they would not break any windows or other children if they got tossed too hard.  The family used sand in used litter soda bottles and covered them with pictures of the saints.  Each child received one prize when they got a halo around the saint.

The fish game.  Two magnetic fish games were bought off amazon.com.  The children would use fishing poles to try and catch magnetic fish. If they "caught" a fish they received a small bag of goldfish for a prize.

The Saint Memory game.  Kids had fun trying to match all the adorable saints from Happy Saints.com.  As a prize each child who played got to take home a baggie with their own Saint Memory Game.

Knock Down the Sins Game.  Kids had fun throwing the balls to break down the sins. They had just as much fun stacking them up again.  As prize they received a small rubber ball with a scripture verse.

The donut table with coffee and juice.

Another view of our fellowship hall.  It shows that a lot can be done in a small space if things are organized well.

People enjoying the fish game. You can see our Little Flower manning the table.  We had each Little Flower sign up to oversee each activity.

Halo Toss in mid-throw!

Knocking down those sins!

Even the bigger kids got into the Saint Memory Game!

People enjoying the refreshments despite the frigid temperature inside the fellowship hall!

Notice the hats and coats still on people.

Little Flowers at work.

Mask making.