Resources for Small Meetings
Small Meetings find it challenging to serve children when there is a broad age range or attendance is irregular. Yet small meetings offer opportunities for stillness and rich relationships between children and adult Friends, opportunities not easily found in our busy world. The key is to be prepared without unduly taxing a small pool of volunteers.
If you are programming for children in a small meeting, these resources can help you teach Quaker faith and practice when there is no regular religious education, or your First Day School is a one room schoolhouse…
Teaching resources…
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...
Busy Box
A Busy Box can be kept on hand should children arrive at a small meeting with no formal religious education program. For Meetings with an RE program, the Busy Box is useful to help young Friends quietly join Meeting for Worship before or after the lesson. Friendly...
Quaker Meeting and Me
Este pequeño y atractivo folleto ayuda a los niños a encontrar su camino hacia la reunión cuáquera para la adoración. Con colores intensos y relajantes, el folleto utiliza imágenes de un jardín para ilustrar los diferentes aspectos del culto cuáquero. Una solapa en la...
Lessons…
Do Our Children Know Enough About Quakerism to Play Quaker? Dover Meeting Dollhouse
Children learn through play. They play school, they play house, they even play COVID, giving everyone shots. Do our children know enough about being Quaker to play Quaker? Children are fully spiritual beings. Meeting life needs to be as open and comprehensible to them...
What Does It Mean to Be Present?
This book exploring practical ways to be present could be used as part of a lesson on mindfulness and how we prepare for worship. The illustrations are lovely. Melinda Wenner Bradley has created the attached children's religious education lesson plan, "Looking Back,...
Creation’s First Light
Creation's First Light, by Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, describes the Light in a way that transcends time, religions, and ethnic origins. Children, teens, and adults can understand this abstract concept in an experiential way. Breathtakingly illustrated to capture...
Planning resources…
Nurturing Quaker Children in a Small Meeting
From the child's point of view, living in a small Meeting can be very rich. The segregation between children and adults that is the norm for popular culture and many large Meetings is impossible here. It is like living in a small town, or a large family where everyone...
QREC Videos: Welcoming children and families into Quaker meeting
A series of six videos to help Quaker monthly meetings and worship groups welcome children and families. Recorded by Melinda Wenner Bradley in the Fall 2015. Rachel Guaraldi was the Videographer.
All Are Welcome — Growing our all age community
Advices and queries on reaching out to families, connecting with each other and enriching all-ages worshipping communities. From Britain Yearly Meeting, "Please use this resource to explore what is happening in your meeting, and consider how you can develop as an...