Our Children and Youth Family Ministry offers many faith engagement opportunities from nursery though high school, including developmentally appropriate curriculum, all ages social action opportunities, worship, and more to come.

Click here to register for 2025-26!

What Happens on Sunday?

Generally on Sunday mornings, families start together in the Sanctuary for the beginning of worship. You can gather by the Activity Table or Prayground near the back of the Sanctuary. The activity table has coloring pages for those who listen better when their hands are busy. The Prayground is a small area on the floor with soft toys for younger kids who need to move during worship. There are also activity binders you can take with you to your seat if you do not wish to sit at the activity table. 

After the Time for All Ages, usually a story told by our Director of Family Ministry Julie Rigano, children and youth leave for their morning programming based on their age. Children and youth are also always welcome to stay in worship with their families if they choose. 

If you have an infant or toddler, they are welcome to stay in the Sanctuary with you or you can join them in the nursery across the hall from the Sanctuary in the lobby. The audio of the service can be heard in the nursery and there are large glass windows so that parents can listen to and see the worship service from the nursery. 

After worship, parents of elementary school children and younger are expected to pick up their children from their programming. Middle school and high school youth can be dismissed on their own. Then families are encouraged to come to coffee hour or play outside together in community.

2025-26 Programming

Click here to register for 2025-26!

Super Sundays: Once a month, K-12th grades will meet together for an all ages activity based on the theme of the month. Super Sundays are the full worship hour and happen about once per monthThis is an opportunity for children and youth to socialize with one another across the age ranges.

Nursery:  Our Nursery (off the main lobby) is open for kindergarten and under. There is no formal supervision; parents must stay in the room with their child(ren). The audio of the service can be heard in the nursery so that parents can listen to the worship service. Parents of Preschoolers is a video-based curriculum grounded in Unitarian Universalism and designed specifically for caregivers of kids ages 2 to 5. Over 16 short episodes (each about three minutes long), viewers learn to understand their child’s spiritual development, to build rituals that support this development, and to empower themselves as spiritual teachers. Then once a month we will have a zoom call to discuss the past month’s videos.

1st-4th grade: This age group will be doing EPIC, or Equal Partners in Community. EPIC is a play-based, skill-building  framework designed to help UU congregations meet kids’ spiritual need to engage in community. Through movement, art, conversation, and more, EPIC sessions help kids become active and loving co-creators of Unitarian Universalist congregational life. EPIC participants are invited to engage in the life of their congregation through what the curriculum calls the “high five” of UU community: Spiritual Growth, Community Care, Hospitality, Justice-Making, and Worship. Each “high five” category contains five class sessions that guide kids from observing community skills in action to using the skills themselves.

5th-6th grade: Our 5th-6th graders will use the curriculum Sing to the Power. Sing to the Power affirms our Unitarian Universalist heritage of confronting “powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.” Participants experience their own power, and understand how it can help them to be leaders. Our 5th-6th graders will also take a break from Sing to the Power to do an Our Whole Lives curriculum starting in 2026. Our Whole Lives, or OWL, offers honest, accurate, developmentally appropriate information about sexuality. It dismantles stereotypes and assumptions, builds self-acceptance and self-esteem, fosters healthy relationships, improves decision making, and has the potential to save lives.

7th-8th grade: This year, our 7th-8th graders will be participating in Neighboring Faiths: Crossing Paths. Crossing Paths joins the long line of visit-based UU curriculum going back 70 years. The Soul Matters version honors these previous curricula and adds its own unique components, including an emphasis on theological grounding, a distinct take on religious pluralism (“Many Mountains, Many Paths”) and an abundance of experiential learning and a deep commitment to family-centered activities. Participants will learn about world religions through visits to different local places of worship with preparation to be respectful while we learn.

9th-12th grade: Our 9th-12th graders will be in our youth group doing Coming of Age. Coming of Age (COA) is a rite of passage for youth to help them transition from childhood to adolescence and young adulthood. The program involves exploring Unitarian Universalist theology, spirituality, and history. Participants often create a personal “credo statement” of beliefs, which they share with the congregation in a Coming of Age service, marking their formal entry into the adult life of the faith community. This year, our youth will also be making a heritage trip up to Boston, MA to visit the UUA and other historic UU sites.