Dear FUUSN Community,

At the end of January the Children’s RE committee met for our annual retreat. At the retreat, we focused on taking a big picture look at what makes a successful Unitarian Universalist children’s RE program. We examined where FUUSN is currently meeting the standards of a successful program, and explored ideas for improving the current program. We shared personally what we hope our own children will learn during their time in RE, and took a look at our current curricula to see how it is meeting our goals. We then examined a few other RE programs and considered whether the addition of these curricula might enhance our children’s learning and experience of RE at FUUSN.

Two particular areas that we recognized could use improvement were social justice learning and direct experience of transcending mystery and wonder. Over the coming months the CRE committee will be considering programs to enhance our young people’s learning in these areas. Specifically, we are considering the addition of the Spirit Play program for our early elementary learners, and the Harry Potter social justice curriculum for our 5th/6th graders. Spirit play is Montessori-based RE program that is structured in such a way as to support children’s experience of transcending mystery and wonder. Harry Potter is a year long curriculum that enables young people to learn about a variety of social justice issues through the lens of a popular culture children’s book series.

Over the coming months we will be reaching into the congregation to find folks who are interested in joining our young people on their RE journey next year. We deeply appreciate the dedicated and skilled team of volunteer teachers currently helping to make this year’s program so successful, and would love to welcome others to join us! If you would enjoy spending more time with the young people of our congregation, please consider volunteering in RE. No previous teaching experience is necessary, as our RE staff and experienced volunteers will support you along the way. Feel free to contact Amanda at amanda@fusn.org or Kim at kashanks@comcast.net so we can work on finding just the right spot for you on our RE volunteer team! In faith and community,-Amanda Graff