I have just become the new leader of a GREAT girls program called Little Women from EcceHomoPress. Below is their description of the program.
The program is not set-up this way, but what works best for us is the 3rd Saturday of every month. We begin at 9:00am with a morning session, eat lunch (each girl packs her own and brings it), then conclude the day with an afternoon session ending at 3:00pm. Any mother who wishes to stay is WELCOMED. If there is a general consensus among the group, all can attend 5:30pm Mass as a group with our families.
Below is listed our yearly agenda. I'm putting links to the blog posts after each month. Enjoy!
September: Cooking & Measuring:
1st meeting--September 17-- baking at my home and hopefully a field trip to a restaurant for instruction from the owner re: menu planning, shopping, preparing, and presenting food.
OUR MEETING
October: Dusting & Cleaning a Room Properly
2nd meeting--October 15-- Learning to dust; removing knick-knacks with care, placing items back in place, dusting well, wiping down countertops & mirrors in bathrooms, staircase dusting. (Virtue is diligence.) also watching a movie with popcorn; the old version of "Cheaper by the Dozen." and playing games with a craft that will make cleaning fun! Hopefully we’ll be able to use our new skills and go to an elderly person’s home from the church to do their dusting and cleaning for them. Naturally, we’ll want to leave them with some yummy goodies to practice our cooking skills from last month.
OUR MEETING
November: Setting & Clearing a Table
3rd meeting--November 19--will be doing the "all-out" setting of a table as well as setting for dinner. We will have a fancy lunch and drink sparkling grape juice! How to clear a table while guests remain seated will be covered. We will also be learning how to decorate for Thanksgiving, learn how to fold napkins in a fancy way, and hopefully in the afternoon we will host some special guests for afternoon snack and the girls will practice their new skills.
OUR MEETING
December: Table Manners & Conversation
4th meeting-- December 17--serving people at a table while they are seated, practicing using correct utensils for cutting meat, buttering bread, passing the correct direction, serving from "family style" dishes and passing, using a napkin, etc...For this day, each girl will need to bring a recipe and the ingredients for some Christmas side dish or dessert they would like to prepare and share with the group. I will be providing the meat. Wear a pretty dress, bring your favorite recipe on cards to swap with friends. After our meal, we will put together a Christmas basket of goodies to be delivered to someone in need of a good meal and good conversation.
OUR MEETING
January: Prepping a Room for Guests
5th meeting--January 21st-- How to properly fold towels and sheets, how to change sheets and make a bed with precision (and another person on the other side!), providing small items that are often forgotten by guests, special touches. Hopefully, we will meet with housekeeping at local hotel to show us how to prepare a room in detail and have a snack there too.
OUR MEETING
February: Correspondence
6th meeting--February 18th-- Make Valentine's for one another and exchange, write a letter to a family member or friend that does not live close by-- bring their address with you! The importance of using written correspondence in this age of technology; thank-you notes, greetings, etc... We will attempt to learn some calligraphy and a few new paper crafts which would enable the girls to make unique and fancy stationary. The latter part of the day is still in debate. We will need to create the invites for the Mother/Daughter Tea in May and perhaps I can find someone to give us a short course in looking at your handwriting and seeing what it says about you--I forget what that is called.
OUR MEETING
March: Hospitality for Others
7th meeting-- March 17th--St. Joseph Table items explained and reviewed. Gift baskets prepared for our priest as part of the St. Joseph's table message. We will provide the makings of a meal in a basket with the items that will not spoil. Menu: a spaghetti dinner (homemade pasta sauce with uncooked pasta), baguette of bread, appetizer, and dessert. We will also have a guest speaker (a local religious)regarding opening your home to others.
OUR MEETING
April: Sewing & Modesty
8th meeting-- April 21--Make an apron with material & ribbons. In the second half of the day, we’ll have a discussion of modesty (rated "G") and the importance of looking your best, but not conforming to the worldview of beauty. The girls will make a collage of photos on a piece of construction paper with pictures from magazines, catalogs or printed off the internet of cute, appropriate outfits and label them: “playclothes, swimsuits, church clothes, spending the night at a friends/Grandma’s house, field trip to a museum or theater.” If they’d like to make an “inappropriate side” on the back of their collage that would be fine too. Obviously, we will not be discussing grossly inappropriate attire and no photos should be included as such. I’m referring to “too casual for church” or “too short for a skirt” type clothing. We might also have a “fashion show” where each girl is secretly assigned a category and she will bring a modest outfit to model for the others. Quite possibly, I’ll be asking each girl to go through their clothes and anything that has become to small or short etc. during the winter can be brought for the other girls to go through or to be donated.
OUR MEETING
May: Hosting a Party
9th meeting-- May 19--BRING A BABY PHOTO OF MOM AS WELL AS A BABY PHOTO OF THE GIRL IN THE GROUP (2 separate pics)-- labeled on the back who it is!! The morning will be decorating for and setting up the food for the Tea Party. The afternoon will be the tea party and daughters will serve the moms. Wear a pretty dress and go all out being "girly" for the Tea Party. Ladylike games will be played. I will provide fun prizes for the winners of the games. **Moms make sure you are able to stay in the area for this meeting, as we will need you around lunchtime.**
June: Book Club
10th meeting--June 16th--for those that are interested and/or available. We will have the book read before the meeting and discuss it then. Olivia’s Little Way is the book I’m considering. We will have a pool party afterwards and each girl/family can bring their own picnic lunch to enjoy.
I hope this peaks your daughters' interest. I am so excited! I look forward to serving your girls.
The Little Women Hospitality Program, developed by Ann Milligan Callaghan, is a two-year, Catholic girls', ten-month program that aims to teach young ladies the various aspects of hospitality. Each month, the girls learn a new skill or "charm" as up-and-coming hostesses, young women, and Catholic mothers. The ten skills in Year I are as follows: cooking, cleaning, setting and clearing a table, manners and conversation, preparing a room for a guest, writing correspondence, bringing hospitality to others, sewing and dressing modestly, putting on a tea party, and running a book club.
Below is listed our yearly agenda. I'm putting links to the blog posts after each month. Enjoy!
September: Cooking & Measuring:
1st meeting--September 17-- baking at my home and hopefully a field trip to a restaurant for instruction from the owner re: menu planning, shopping, preparing, and presenting food.
OUR MEETING
October: Dusting & Cleaning a Room Properly
2nd meeting--October 15-- Learning to dust; removing knick-knacks with care, placing items back in place, dusting well, wiping down countertops & mirrors in bathrooms, staircase dusting. (Virtue is diligence.) also watching a movie with popcorn; the old version of "Cheaper by the Dozen." and playing games with a craft that will make cleaning fun! Hopefully we’ll be able to use our new skills and go to an elderly person’s home from the church to do their dusting and cleaning for them. Naturally, we’ll want to leave them with some yummy goodies to practice our cooking skills from last month.
OUR MEETING
November: Setting & Clearing a Table
3rd meeting--November 19--will be doing the "all-out" setting of a table as well as setting for dinner. We will have a fancy lunch and drink sparkling grape juice! How to clear a table while guests remain seated will be covered. We will also be learning how to decorate for Thanksgiving, learn how to fold napkins in a fancy way, and hopefully in the afternoon we will host some special guests for afternoon snack and the girls will practice their new skills.
OUR MEETING
December: Table Manners & Conversation
4th meeting-- December 17--serving people at a table while they are seated, practicing using correct utensils for cutting meat, buttering bread, passing the correct direction, serving from "family style" dishes and passing, using a napkin, etc...For this day, each girl will need to bring a recipe and the ingredients for some Christmas side dish or dessert they would like to prepare and share with the group. I will be providing the meat. Wear a pretty dress, bring your favorite recipe on cards to swap with friends. After our meal, we will put together a Christmas basket of goodies to be delivered to someone in need of a good meal and good conversation.
OUR MEETING
January: Prepping a Room for Guests
5th meeting--January 21st-- How to properly fold towels and sheets, how to change sheets and make a bed with precision (and another person on the other side!), providing small items that are often forgotten by guests, special touches. Hopefully, we will meet with housekeeping at local hotel to show us how to prepare a room in detail and have a snack there too.
OUR MEETING
February: Correspondence
6th meeting--February 18th-- Make Valentine's for one another and exchange, write a letter to a family member or friend that does not live close by-- bring their address with you! The importance of using written correspondence in this age of technology; thank-you notes, greetings, etc... We will attempt to learn some calligraphy and a few new paper crafts which would enable the girls to make unique and fancy stationary. The latter part of the day is still in debate. We will need to create the invites for the Mother/Daughter Tea in May and perhaps I can find someone to give us a short course in looking at your handwriting and seeing what it says about you--I forget what that is called.
OUR MEETING
March: Hospitality for Others
7th meeting-- March 17th--St. Joseph Table items explained and reviewed. Gift baskets prepared for our priest as part of the St. Joseph's table message. We will provide the makings of a meal in a basket with the items that will not spoil. Menu: a spaghetti dinner (homemade pasta sauce with uncooked pasta), baguette of bread, appetizer, and dessert. We will also have a guest speaker (a local religious)regarding opening your home to others.
OUR MEETING
April: Sewing & Modesty
8th meeting-- April 21--Make an apron with material & ribbons. In the second half of the day, we’ll have a discussion of modesty (rated "G") and the importance of looking your best, but not conforming to the worldview of beauty. The girls will make a collage of photos on a piece of construction paper with pictures from magazines, catalogs or printed off the internet of cute, appropriate outfits and label them: “playclothes, swimsuits, church clothes, spending the night at a friends/Grandma’s house, field trip to a museum or theater.” If they’d like to make an “inappropriate side” on the back of their collage that would be fine too. Obviously, we will not be discussing grossly inappropriate attire and no photos should be included as such. I’m referring to “too casual for church” or “too short for a skirt” type clothing. We might also have a “fashion show” where each girl is secretly assigned a category and she will bring a modest outfit to model for the others. Quite possibly, I’ll be asking each girl to go through their clothes and anything that has become to small or short etc. during the winter can be brought for the other girls to go through or to be donated.
OUR MEETING
May: Hosting a Party
9th meeting-- May 19--BRING A BABY PHOTO OF MOM AS WELL AS A BABY PHOTO OF THE GIRL IN THE GROUP (2 separate pics)-- labeled on the back who it is!! The morning will be decorating for and setting up the food for the Tea Party. The afternoon will be the tea party and daughters will serve the moms. Wear a pretty dress and go all out being "girly" for the Tea Party. Ladylike games will be played. I will provide fun prizes for the winners of the games. **Moms make sure you are able to stay in the area for this meeting, as we will need you around lunchtime.**
June: Book Club
10th meeting--June 16th--for those that are interested and/or available. We will have the book read before the meeting and discuss it then. Olivia’s Little Way is the book I’m considering. We will have a pool party afterwards and each girl/family can bring their own picnic lunch to enjoy.
I hope this peaks your daughters' interest. I am so excited! I look forward to serving your girls.
