DIY Religious Education lesson

by | Mar 16, 2020 | Children Programs, Children's Curriculum, News (home), Religious Ed News

Dear Families, 

Here is a DIY Religious Education lesson from a colleague Andrew Coate! If children complete all seven, they will earn an embroidered badge!!

To ensure folks have adequate resources, are feeling safe, and to see what type of support you’d like from us, from digital worship video, Hangouts for your children/ youth, activity kits, and book bundles, please let us know! Huge shout out to Krista Mendelsohn, Kendall Lynch, and Tim Holmes for helping me reach out to all families

The story on Sunday involves a family making a bird feeder at home! Laurie Lemson and I are going to put some kits together on Wednesday morning, and folks are welcome to pick up bird feeders from the church on Wednesday afternoon!  Please be in touch.

Lastly, I’d love for the UU Ventura Parenting Group to be a space you can ask for help. If you need supplies, someone to watch your kids, if someone falls ill and you need support, or if you just need to vent, I am here for you. We are here for you!  

Armfuls of love,
Emily, Director of Religious Education 
Pronouns: She/ her/ hers

Every Person Is Important

by | Mar 15, 2020 | Children Programs, Children's Curriculum, News (home), Religious Ed News

Our First Principle 

There are 7 principles in Unitarian Universalism. Our first principle is “Every Person is Important.”  Read or listen to Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña and then complete two of these three challenges. 

Challenge 1: CJ and his grandmother travel from their church to a soup kitchen where they help out. There are a lot of different places and ways you can help out, too. Think of a way you could help out or volunteer and then draw a picture of that activity. Examples might be donating clothes, writing letters to lawmakers, or helping fix up a trail you like to hike on with your family. Have your parents send me a picture of your art! 

Challenge 2: While they’re traveling CJ and his grandmother are on the bus they travel down familiar streets across their city. Use Google Maps Street View to take a virtual walk around the neighborhood. Then pick somewhere else far away. It may be a city in another country you don’t know anything about or an address near a faraway friend. Take a virtual walk around that neighborhood and talk about what it might be like to live there. What is similar to your neighborhood? What is different? 

Challenge 3: At first CJ is bored on the bus, but then he starts noticing the people around him on the bus. Call a friend and ask them how they are doing. Maybe make plans to talk again soon or try playing a game together on the computer or via video chat. 

 

Which challenges did you complete? 

RE News Oct, 2019

by | Sep 29, 2019 | Children's Curriculum, News (home), Religious Ed News

After a lovely summer, it has been powerful to come back together as a community for ingathering and fall classes. One parent said it’s amazing to see how comfortable her son is in this community after he stood and volunteered to speak in a worship service. We seek to provide a space for children to feel a sense of safety and belonging, and also learn and grow in a community that holds us all accountable when we see injustice.

One community I have belonged to for over ten years is the young adult camp at De Benneville Pines, a Unitarian Universalist campground in the San Bernardino mountains. The theme this year was radical resilience, and I experienced the value of centering joy to promote resilience, as collective joy disrupts oppression, and is a revolutionary act. With all that each of our hearts is holding, and as our hearts break with all that we see, may we not take this community for granted. May we offer a meal, a cup of tea, a warm hug, a listening ear, a smile, and center joy, as we work, despite it all.

The Religious Education team is excited about our fall course offerings! The youth are undertaking the longstanding tradition of Unitarian Universalist teens visiting other faith communities within our city. Crossing Paths is the latest rendition, which uses the lens of analyzing what problem each religious notices, and which solution they provide. The upper elementary students will use Sing to the Power, a Tapestry of Faith curriculum that 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. The lower elementary will use the Soul Matters theme-based ministry packets for religious education to deepen the connection to the monthly themes with age appropriate activities, including a wonder box! I’d love to speak more with you about these classes if you have questions or comments.
With Armfuls of Love,
Emily Carroll
Director of Religious Education

Masks, Music & Justice

by | Aug 27, 2019 | Children Programs, News (home), Religious Ed News

Masks, Music and Justice Making in Children’s Religious Education this Summer

NEWS from Religious Education • Emily Carroll, DRE – July, 2019

As our main curricula finish, and most of our team of amazing volunteer teachers takes a time of rest, we turn toward the playful spirit of summer! Our mission is family ministry that develops wisdom and resilience with UU values and action, builds relationships across the ages, and serves by learning and building connections within the congregation and beyond!

We are delighted to offer two activities on any given Sunday in addition to our nursery class. For the first half of the summer Joyce Lombard will be leading a fabulous mask-making project where kids will form masks to their faces using wet plaster gauze! After painting and decorating, masks will be displayed in the Green Room Gallery! For the younger kids, we’ll have a Music and Principles curriculum where musician guests from the congregation will share their instruments with the kids as we uphold our 7 UU principles with story, craft, and song!

Part two of the summer starts July 28 with activities around reading “Magical Monkey King: Mischief in Heaven” about the Chinese trickster God who gets away with lots of mischief! It’s about taming the monkey mind and learning the meaning of kindness. We’ll create shadow puppets to act out the story as we go!

The other option for the second half of summer is to be part of a Growing Young Justice Makers curriculum for children and youth to understand the complexities of conversations on race, participate in service projects, identify and heed the voice of their conscience, and ground their justice work in UU values.

We are also over the moon excited for the second annual Peace Camp at UU Ventura which is in early August! It is a weeklong day camp for K-8th grade that uses a musical curriculum to teach peacemaking, conflict resolution, and social justice, including three field trips! Register at: tinyurl.com/y2xlxh3u

Wishing everyone a lovely change of pace as the season turns, and from a book I try to read every summer: “Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don’t they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.” Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

Three Cheers for Summer,
Emily Carroll, Director of Religious Education emily@uuventura.org

OWL Grades 10-12

by | Sep 13, 2017 | Religious Ed News

Our Whole Lives: Sexuality Education for Grades 10-12 helps high school youth gain the knowledge, life principles and skills they need to express their sexuality in life-enhancing ways. It puts sexuality into the context of values and personal responsibility, helping them manage social pressure and advocate for equality. It provides an opportunity to bring values and integrity to the real-life issues
Our Whole Lives: Sexuality Education for Grades 10-12
Language
Examining Values
Body Image and Feelings
Anatomy & Physiology
Sexual Response Cycle and Sexual Functioning Reproductive and Sexual Health Care
AIDS and Other STDs
Contraception
Condoms and Negotiating for Safer Sex
Sexy Safe Fantasy
Gender Roles
Identity, Roles, and Orientation
Sexual Orientation
Conception, Pregnancy and Birth
Parenting License
Parenting Alternatives
Sexuality Timeline
Sexuality and People with Disabilities
Sexual Expressions and Relationships
Verbal and Non‐verbal Communication
What Makes a Good Relationship?
Questions of the Other Gender
Defining Intimacy
Masturbation Myths and Facts
Sexual Behavior
Images of Love and Sex in Music and Video
Power and Responsibility
Power in Relationships
Breaking UP and Moving On
Abortion
New Reproductive Choices
Sexual Exploitation, Sexual Harassment and Erotica Date Rape
Between Consenting Adults
Gay Pride Parade
Gender Equity
Sexuality and Social Issues
Our Whole Lives (OWL) values: •Self Worth
•Sexual Health
•Responsibility
•Justice and Inclusivity
OWL models and teaches caring, compassion, respect, and justice. It helps high school‐age youth address their attitudes and values, their feelings about themselves and their sexuality, and their attitudes toward others’ sexuality. Participants in grades 10‐12 are guided by trained facilitators through an engaging curriculum that addresses topics typically excluded from sexuality education and health classes. This highly adaptable program includes fourteen sessions that include 41 workshops ranging from 25‐60 minutes for flexible scheduling.
OWL is a secular curriculum, appropriate in a variety of settings. Sexuality and Our Faith for Grades 10‐12 is a religious supplement for use in Unitarian Universalist and United Church of Christ congregations.
owl 10-12

Childrens' Religious Exploration Sign Ups Online

by | Jul 29, 2017 | Religious Ed News

The next Religious Exploration term starts September 17. Parents, teachers and volunteers, please visit the UU Ventura website at http://www.uuventura.org to register your kids for our Religious Exploration program, or to register yourself as a volunteer or teacher.
Choose “Childrens’ Religious Education” from the “Learning” menu, and then click Child Registration or Volunteer Registration from the menu on the left. This will help us get our new Director of Religious Exploration ready for the new year. If you’re already registered, you only need to re-register if you have information to update.

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