Grand Valley UU Children's Religious Education (RE)
We offer children's programming each Sunday in a combined preK-5th grade class at 10:30am. Teachers lead classes drawing from the Soul Matters curriculum while making use of creative activities including music, art, theater, and story. The Soul Matters curriculum presents the same themes the adults engage in during service in an age-appropriate format. Our classes and services are designed to foster community, empathy, and a sense of social responsibility among our children and youth.
Each month we celebrate and explore a new theme in our classes on Sunday mornings. However, most of our children’s religious education occurs in the home. Because of this, we email our families each week with a summary of our Sunday classes and extension activities with the hope of inspiring continued conversation around the month’s theme in the home.
Each month we celebrate and explore a new theme in our classes on Sunday mornings. However, most of our children’s religious education occurs in the home. Because of this, we email our families each week with a summary of our Sunday classes and extension activities with the hope of inspiring continued conversation around the month’s theme in the home.
Children’s Religious Education
January 2024 - The Gift of Liberating Love
January 7
Liberating Love An Act of Warmth & Kindness Warming Booth in the Community Garden Join us as we exercise a form of love that might bring a little comfort, as we will be serving warm beverages to folks from a table in the community garden directly north of our building. January 14 No RE We welcome the children to stay in the sanctuary for this meaningful service with guest speaker Dr. Barbara Zind who will be sharing her experiences and stories from her time spent in Gaza working with the children who live there. |
January 21
Love Pulls Us Toward Self-Acceptance Through love we can navigate to a place of accepting ourselves, loving our imperfections, and, in doing so, creating space for us to love ourselves. January 28 Love Pulls Us Upstream This week we will explore how love is like a magnet and pulls us upstream. |
A Message from Maya Kraushaar, Director of Programming & Community Outreach
My grandfather shared with me the gift of wonder for nature and awe of the magical power contained within a seed. The connection I now have with plants undoubtedly took root though time spent with him in his incredible garden when I was young.
Still with the same sense of awe, he wrote to me years later,
“Make sure that you take time to marvel at the miracle of growth. It still amazes me that a minute seed can produce such magnificent plants. You are just the facilitator - the rest is up to nature.”
This sense of wonder is the magic that makes life rich. It’s in not having all of the answers which allows us to feel amazement and humility.
This month in our children’s programming we are going to take a look at how we choose to perceive anything and everything can transform it from mundane to miraculous.
Last month we dove into practices to deepen our feelings of appreciation and made the connection that gratitude and generosity are fundamentally interconnected. We can now take it a step further, making yet another connection - we can also feel gratitude for the things we don’t understand, for the mystery of it all.
Join us this month as we practice recognizing the mystery behind the ordinary and seek truth within the miracles.
With gratitude,
Maya
Still with the same sense of awe, he wrote to me years later,
“Make sure that you take time to marvel at the miracle of growth. It still amazes me that a minute seed can produce such magnificent plants. You are just the facilitator - the rest is up to nature.”
This sense of wonder is the magic that makes life rich. It’s in not having all of the answers which allows us to feel amazement and humility.
This month in our children’s programming we are going to take a look at how we choose to perceive anything and everything can transform it from mundane to miraculous.
Last month we dove into practices to deepen our feelings of appreciation and made the connection that gratitude and generosity are fundamentally interconnected. We can now take it a step further, making yet another connection - we can also feel gratitude for the things we don’t understand, for the mystery of it all.
Join us this month as we practice recognizing the mystery behind the ordinary and seek truth within the miracles.
With gratitude,
Maya
Thank you volunteers!
A big thank you to our incredible teachers! Volunteers make our RE program fantastic!