Children’s Program

Seeking to Nurture and Support

Children and Their Families

in Their Spiritual Journeys

The purpose of the Meeting’s Youth Religious Education program is to:

  • guide the children of the Meeting in their discovery and experience of the Inner (Guiding) Light in both corporate and private worship;
  • encourage a personal experience of God;
  • ensure each child in Meeting feels important and loved;
  • help each child in Meeting develop a system of values based on Quaker principles.

The Sunday morning schedule begins with children and adults singing together for 15 minutes.  Then children go to their youth program during adult worship and rejoin Meeting for Worship during the last 10 minutes of un-programmed worship.  Children are present during introductions and announcements.

Youth program (First Day School) is held each week during the school year (September through June).  During the summer months, the children enjoy supervised play in our fenced play yard, in the surrounding woods, or in the soccer field across the road.

Curricula

Throughout our lessons and experiences in First Day School the teachers set a tone of respect for each other and display a deep caring for and interest in each person.  Using stories and activities, we provide children the opportunity to learn how to love, what to do, and who to be.  Topics include:

  • Friends principles (that of God in all, direct experience of God) and testimonies (Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, Stewardship of the Earth)
  • Story of Jesus / the Gospels / Jesus’ message and Old Testament stories
  • Prayer, worship, and other devotional activities
  • Peace and social justice issues
  • Service within the Meeting Community, within our wider community, and around the world
  • Quakers whose lives speak to us today
  • Comparative religion (in junior and senior high school)

Some lessons use the Godly Play curriculum which strives to create a sense of awe and wonder in response to the simple telling of Bible stories and parables.  We also use the similar Quaker “Faith and Play” curriculum to learn about early Quakers and Quaker practices.

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