We as human beings need stories. It's this primal part of who we are as a human race — from the very beginning. That's how we have always made meaning. Telling stories, over and over again. Caryl Cresswell, a recorded minister in Sierra Cascades Yearly Meeting, a...
Resources for 6 to 8 years
Sparkling Still LibraryThing Collection
Looking for excellent children’s books to illustrate Friends faith and practice? Start HERE with the Sparkling Still LibraryThing collection, a continuously updated catalog by theme and age group.
33 Multicultural Children’s Books About Peace
Every day can be about creating peace. Here are some multicultural books on peace for Quaker collections......
Northern Yearly Meeting Children and Youth Policy Manual
Policies and procedures for facilitating programming for children and youth in Northern Yearly Meeting. The manual includes: NYM Children & Youth Committee member role description, Personnel policies for youth serving employees, Responsibilities for reporting...
My Mandala: What is Your Spiritual Journey?
This experiential curriculum uses mandalas to help children learn about their past and current connection to the Divine and to their faith community. Can be taught in one or more lessons. From the author… "In 2017, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions...
The Gardener
Lydia Grace Finch brings a suitcase full of seeds to the big gray city, where she goes to stay with her Uncle Jim, a cantankerous baker. There she initiates a gradual transformation, bit by bit brightening the shop and bringing smiles to customers' faces with the...
Family Worship Pamphlet
What a challenge our form of worship is for children! Even if you just consider the visuals — "still forms on every side" — it looks like a room full of adults either falling asleep or being punished with a time out. How can we help our children feel the depth, the...
Books for these trying times with COVID-19
A listing of nine books with brief synopses that we think have a message for children in these trying times. Many of the stories are about children overcoming challenges.We hope the books encourage you to think about other things, and appreciate the beauty around us....
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Lesson plan for the home with a book and activities. When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba's Malawi village was hit by a drought, everyone's crops began to fail. Without enough money for food, let alone school, William spent his days in the library — and figured...
Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence
Lesson plan for the home with a book, music and activities — "All men are born free and equal." Everybody knows about the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence in 1776. But the founders weren't the only ones who believed that everyone had a right to...
Lucky Beans
Lesson plan for the home with a book and activities. 1930's Great Depression is the setting of a boy's ingenuity in helping his family. Like so many people during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Marshall Loman's dad has lost his job. There's little money, but there...
What Do You Do with an Idea?
Lesson plan for the home with a book, music and activities. What do you do with an idea? Especially an idea that's different, or daring, or a little wild? This is the story of one brilliant idea and the child who helps to bring it into the world. As the child's...
Baseball Saved Us
Lesson plan for the home with a book, video and activities. The Japanese American concentration camp experience during World War II After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Shorty and his family, along with thousands of other Japanese Americans, have been forced to...
Home Religious Education Guide – Sharing Our Gifts
Activities to Pair with Books and Music HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE Please use these ideas in ways that work best for your children. The Concepts listed and Bible Readings are for grown-up background material to support you. Reading aloud the book together, or watching...
A is for All the Things You Are
A lesson plan for the home with a book, music and activities: A Is for All the Things You Are: A Joyful ABC Book is an alphabet board book developed by the National Museum of African American History and Culture that celebrates what makes us unique as individuals and...
Centering Tools: Mandalas
"It all starts with stopping," says author Beth Collea, as she describes how the practice of coloring mandalas helps young children settle. Links are provided to websites with free, printable mandalas from the simple to the intricate. This tool is useful for family...
¡Aprobado! Una Historia Acerca de la Junta de Acuerdos
¿Cómo pueden los niños trabajar de forma cooperativa para tomar decisiones? Los niños en una junta Cuáquera necesitan decidir qué hacer con el dinero que han recaudado. Ellos conducen su propia junta acuerdos. La historia utiliza un lenguaje claro, sencillo y unas...
Approved! A Story About Quaker Meeting for Business
How can children work cooperatively to make decisions? Approved! A Story About Quaker Meeting for Business tells of a group of children who want to donate the money they earned selling hot dogs at their Quaker meeting. The story uses simple, clear language and...
The Light: A Story for December
Cultures all over the world celebrate festivals of Light, often in December. This story, told in the Faith & Play style. uses symbols of Light in a simple, profound way to introduce these festivals in Quaker religious education.
Uncle Vova’s Tree
Grandparents, aunts and uncles, and children gather at a farm house to celebrate Christmas in the Russian tradition. Based on Polacco's childhood memories, this is the story of her Great-uncle Vladimir, known as Vova, and his colorful and inventive celebrations of the...
Settling Routine
We use this settling routine from Ann Arbor (MI) Friends Meeting with all our kids, sometimes omitting a line or two. It's important to have chairs an appropriate height for all children so their toes can touch the floor. Sitting on the floor with knees bent and feet...
Loaves and Fishes
This picture-book version of the Biblical parable of the loaves and fishes tells the story from the perspective of the young boy who offers up his simple lunch of rye bread loaves and fish he'd caught at his quiet fishing spot to Jesus, who uses them to feed the...
George Fox: The Man Who Wouldn’t
A delightful collection of children's stories about George Fox, the man who wouldn't tip his hat; go to church; pretend; carry a sword.
Religious Education for the Home and Small Meeting
This is an idea packet assembled for families and small meetings who seek to educate children in Quaker faith and practice. Originally published in 1986, this is a treasure trove, worthy of adaptation and revision given that most Quaker meetings still face these...
Return to General Search
An Introduction
The Quaker Religious Education Collaborative (QREC) is an international, cross-branch, grassroots network of Friends sharing a stewardship for lifelong Quaker faith formation through religious education. We formed in April 2014 and now serve more than 300 Friends in our network. We actively engage and support each other across languages and continents. We gather for regional and annual conferences and offer monthly Conversation Circles via an online conferencing platform.
Steering Circle
We share leadership as part of our collaborative mission, making decisions using the Quaker ‘sense of the meeting’ process, sitting in expectant, worshipful waiting for the emergence of shared truth. Read more…
Working Circles
Our work takes place in ‘circles’ or small groups of Friends who labor on a common task, usually meeting by video conference due to the geographic diversity of the membership. Read more…
The Resource Library
Finders Guide, a sampling of the collection
The QREC Resource Library is a place to share lessons and other educational information in support of our work as Quaker religious educators. This library is a forum for curricula, articles, videos and other educational materials on Quaker themes. You will also find principles, policies and procedures to strengthen operation of your child, youth and adult religious education programs.
Children’s Education
Adult Education
Family
African Quaker Library
Youth Education
Small Meetings
Young Adult Friends
Biblioteca QREC
Events
Find renewal, companionship, and help for nitty gritty issues in Quaker religious education, all the while opening spaces for Spirit to work and listening together for God’s way forward.
QREC holds an annual conference and retreat. In addition we hold online Conversation Circles and post other religious education events as we learn about them.
Conversation Circles
Online conferences for Quaker religious educators to share about their work. Conversations are scheduled for two sessions per topic to encourage international participation. Join the conversation…
Other Events
Religious education events of interest to Quakers from all parts of the world. Please let us know about upcoming online or in-person events happening in your area. See the list of upcoming events…
Love at the Heart
Spiritual Practices
Discernment
Active Caring
Quaker Family Culture
Finding the Light
Faith at Home
Home is the heart of faith formation for all families. This is especially true for Friends. As an experiential religion, Quakerism is best learned through living in loving community. Indeed, the vast majority of faith formation for our young Friends happens at home in the busy swirl of daily life.
Become a Member
Submit Resources
Get Announcements
Donate
Attend an Event
Contact Us
Get Involved
QREC depends on all of us sharing our gifts and skills as religious educators. Here are some of the ways you can get involved…