What age works best for Little Flowers?

I thought I'd share this email with you all just in case some of you may have the same question:

Hi,

I was wondering if you could help me with a question. . . Upon looking at the Little Flowers manuals, one gets the impression that they are geared toward older girls, who are able to read and especially write.  However, the pictures on your website show mostly younger girls and the program is advertised as being for ages 5 and up.  Therefore, in our area, the girls start at 5 and are done with the program by age 8 or 9.  In my opinion, they end up missing out on most of the activities in the member's manuals because they are not ready for them yet.  Can you offer any insight? 

Yes, you can start the program at age 5 with the simple tasks...memorizing the Bible verse (the music helps) etc. The program, though, was initially created for a number of ages in the same group. Remember that it came from Catholic homeschooling families who get together and may have ten girls ages 5 and up so the program could be adjusted to meet all the ages. And, when the girls who were five years old have finished the three or four wreaths of study, the group would begin with Wreath I again. This way, the older girls who did get a lot of the study of the virtues help teach the younger ones and the ones that have yearning to begin Little Flowers since they were 2 or 3 years old can now begin.

 

So the paradigm has shifted a bit as the program has been adopted by Catholic schools and religious education classes. But because the program is run at the local level, it can be adjusted to fit the needs of the local group. Some schools use Wreath I in K-2; Wreath 2 in 3-4; Wreath 3 in 5-6 and Wreath 4 or the new Hospitality Program for the older girls. Anyway you want to implement the program is fine. If you only have younger girls and you want to spend three months on one virtue to make sure the children get it, that is fine, too. If you want to just give the younger girls merit certificates instead of badges that they may earn when they are older, that is fine, also. In short, there is no one way to implement the program. It can be adjusted to fit the your particular needs.

 

Hope this helps!