for a Celebration Day for Girls workshop
Give your daughter and her friends a day where they’ll enjoy learning about puberty and having a menstrual cycle – and benefit from this understanding for years to come.
Step 1: Meet your facilitator
To find out more or to make a booking for girls in your community contact your local facilitator.
If there’s no-one in your immediate area, try your closest facilitator or contact us directly. Many of us travel widely, even interstate or internationally, to offer a Celebration Day for Girls.
Step 2: Gather your group
Your facilitator can help you with suggestions for what to say to potential mothers/female carers and give you an invite email or flyer to give others an idea of what to expect.
Please discuss minimum and maximum numbers with your facilitator. Some are happy with a group of four or five girls, others require larger groups. The maximum will also vary, but is never more than 15 girls.
You may like to invite mothers of girls in your daughter’s class, sporting club or community, including girls slightly older or younger, usually between 10 and 12 years of age.
How to invite others to a Celebration Day
As more and more communities hear about Celebration Day for Girls workshops, the benefits to girls and their mothers and how enjoyable they are, it becomes easier for someone to organise a group of their daughter’s peers.
However, some people may not be certain about the idea of girls celebrating and learning about their transition to puberty or understanding more about the menstrual cycle. They may worry that understanding more about the menstrual cycle invites earlier sexual maturation.
You can reassure them that knowing what to expect doesn’t make girls grow up faster, it just helps them feel more confident about the process, and prevent them believing any misinformation from peers.
We suggest that you focus on the fact that it’s a fun day for the girls and a great opportunity for them to
• become confident about what changes they will go through
• experience positive and fun learning about their body and
• share a warm and supportive experience with their mother/female carer.
How to introduce the idea of a Celebration Day - EXAMPLE
I’m organising a Celebration Day for Girls workshop. Would you like to join us with your daughter? It’s a two-part workshop for girls to feel informed and confident about puberty changes and what to expect when they have a menstrual cycle.
It’s a relaxed fun day for them; they do craft activities while hearing body-positive info, and after lunch when the mums/women join in, we’ll have storytelling and other creative activities … and the day finishes with smiles and hugs!
It also often opens up new conversations between you about bodies and taking care of yourself.
How to explain the structure of a Celebration Day workshop - EXAMPLE
It starts with an evening just for the women, so they can meet the facilitator and get a feel for her positive approach and what will be covered on the day. You also get time to reflect on what it was like for you during puberty, and what you’d like for her as she grows up.
Then we’ll have a day on the weekend, where the girls do a morning together with the facilitator, and you join in for lunch and stay for the rest of the afternoon.
How you can talk to girls about joining a Celebration Day - EXAMPLE
We recommend that you present it to her as a gift, rather than an optional event, which takes away the pressure of her having to decide whether or not to go. You could say something like:
“I’d like to give you this day because it’ll be fun to do with your friends, and you and I can have special mother-daughter time in the afternoon. I’ve organised this day and I’d really like you to go so that you feel confident about how your body is going to change.
Plus, you get to hang out with your friends/other girls and be creative together!”
It’s something you are giving her, rather than an optional event.
If a mother you invite says their daughter is unsure
Girls may say they’re not sure about doing a Celebration Day workshop, but most are curious and want to know more about their body changes. (Plus, it’s a day to hand out with other girls!)
It’s understandable that girls feel uncertain, however supporting girls to have a positive and connected experience of puberty and periods, and knowing how important this is, is the job of parents and other trusted adults.
In our experience even reluctant girls relax and start to enjoy themselves soon after arriving and settling into the workshop. Our facilitators are understanding and skilled at helping girls become comfortable, curious and proud about topics that they may have been rather shy about prior to a Celebration Day.
Step 3: Find a date.
Discuss possible dates with your facilitator first. Then check with your group to arrange dates for two parts of the workshop:
1. The 2-hour session for mothers/female carers, often held on a weeknight 7.00pm to 9.00 pm prior to the full-day workshop)
2. A Saturday or Sunday for the full day, usually from 10.00am to 4.00pm.
Step 4: Confirm venue and other details
Often one of the participating families will host both sessions in their home, which gives the workshop a warm and relaxed atmosphere. Other groups use local community centres, their school or a yoga studio. Please note that any additional venue hire costs may be in addition to your workshop fee.
Ideally, a venue will have natural light, access to a kitchen and some kind of open space for a small break. Check in with your facilitator about room size if you are not sure whether the space will work.
Send everyone venue, time and payment details and confirm with a reminder just before we meet. During the women’s evening, your facilitator will cover in greater detail what will happen during the workshop for the girls and a few simple things to bring along on the day.
Step 5: Enjoy the workshop!
We invite you to immerse yourself in the enjoyment and opportunity of a beautiful occasion to create space in order to connect with your daughter over shared learning, craft, stories and activities.