Children & Youth
Our Religious Education
The Religious Education program for children and youth is an integral part of the church. Children and adults join together for the beginning of the worship service in the sanctuary and then go off to classes.
The children are greeted in our beautiful classrooms by their teachers. Each class will have four teachers and two of those teachers will be in the classroom each week. The classes are divided according to the school grade of the children. Parents are expected to volunteer to spend a few Sundays each year in the classroom with their child’s class. Parents also provide the snack.
We try to give each child a well-rounded experience in a holistic way. Every curriculum is taught with a UU perspective. We want our children to have the tools that enable them to make their own free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
2009 – 2010
We have planned an exciting year for our children. Classes will use newer, teacher-friendly UU curricula, and will be divided into a prekindergarten-only class, a K–1 class, a grade 2–3 class, etc. for the 11:00am service. At 9:15am, there will be one multi-age class. We will also have five “special Sundays” during which all children will be together, engaged in a social justice activity. On some Sundays, children will start in the Crossings Room for a short children’s service. Charles and I are planning several intergenerational services throughout the year, including two in September.
Here is what each class will learn:
9:15 am:
Spirit of Adventure uses the themes of sports,medicine, food, science, building, exploring, and the web of life as ways to discover the people and values of our Unitarian Universalist faith.
11:00 am
Prekindergarten: We Are Many, We Are One offers children the grounding of a religious community and tradition, along with the freedom to discover and express their uniqueness. The underlying theme is anti-bias and multicultural education, celebrating
diversity and interdependency.
K–1: A Discovering Year nurtures children’s spiritual and religious growth by exploring connections to themselves, friendships, families, church, nature, and religious and cultural days. Children will learn to appreciate the worth of each person, to express feelings, to play cooperatively, to celebrate diversity, and to feel like they are a part of the UU community.
Grades 2–3: Free to Believe explores Unitarian Universalist principles and sources while nurturing the emotional, social, and spiritual lives of children. Later sessions focus on life’s big questions (God, death, creation of life) through a UU lens.
Grades 4–5: Bibleodeon is a UU curriculum that presents the best-known Hebrew and Christian stories in a fun and informative way. The class will also explore connections between biblical events and uu principles, and between biblical ideas and their own lives.
Grades 6–7: You the Creator is an activity-based UU curriculum of creative empowerment. The class will use activities like role playing, drawing, photography, sculpting, constructing spaghetti bridges, designing perfect pets, and making gods and goddesses to focus on the importance of creative force and creative action. The theme of spirituality touches every session.
Grades 8–9: Coming of Age is a UU rite of passage that celebrates the transition from childhood into the teen and adult years. It encourages youth to explore what it means to be a UU, and it helps youth move into the adult role of identifying and acting on personal beliefs and values. During the year, the youth will explore personal beliefs and values; learn about Unitarian Universalism and how our faith applies to everyday life; participate in service projects to UUCWC and the community; take a heritage trip to Boston; and work with a mentor to write a personal statement of current religious belief, which will be read at a Sunday service at the end of the year.
Our program is a cooperative one in which parents are expected to play a part. We encourage you to share your time and talents with us. And how can we help you – as parents? – as a family? Classes, discussion groups, support groups are all possible as we identify the needs.
See the UUCWC Religious Education Prospectus for more information.
Our school year for Religious Education begins in September and continues through mid-June. If you wish to enroll your children in our programs please complete a registration form and a health history form.
Summer Program
UUCWC will be offering a summer program for children ages 3 to 10, every Sunday from June 21 through September 6 during the 10:00am service. The multiage classes will base their curriculum on Picture Book Unitarian Universalism. Pre-registration is not required.
Resources