"You must be good at something," said Miss Lucinda. "Everyone has a special talent." On the first day of school, Miss Lucinda asks the students to share their special talents. Francesca is a star soccer player, Matthew can catch huge fish with his grandpa, and Candace...
Home Resources
Teaching the Language of Children’s Spirituality
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...
Nurturing Children’s Spiritual Lives: A Journey of Spirit and Wonder
By Melinda Wenner Bradley When a new baby or child arrives in our lives, into our care, we learn to assess their needs: What does my crying child need? Is the baby hungry? Does she need to be fed? Is his diaper wet? What does my child need to help them fall asleep? We...
Conversation Circle (July 2020) — Program Planning in Uncertain Times
Topic: In April and May we held conversations on how Friends were managing Religious Education and supporting families during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we look forward, the virus is still with us - and will be for some time to come. Join the conversation on how we can...
Conversation Circle (May 2020) — Online Quaker Religious Education
Topic: Online Quaker Religious Education: What have we learned so far in our roles as pastors and educators? Welcome and Introductions Centering Silence The COVI-19 pandemic has been a time of struggle and heartbreak, hitting some parts of the society and the world...
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...
Quiet
Lesson plan for the home with book, videos and activities. The author reminds us that mindfulness‚ "being quiet, still, and present with one another" is a very special thing. Everything is in such a hurry, busy as busy can be. The birds are flying so fast, the...
Flowers for Sarajevo
Lesson plan for the home with a book, music and activities: Young Drasko is happy working with his father in the Sarajevo market. Then war encroaches. Drasko must run the family flower stand alone. One morning, the bakery is bombed and twenty-two people are killed....
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...
Good People Everywhere
Lesson plan for the home with a book, video and music. Good People Everywhere is a soothing story to help children become mindful of the beautiful, caring people in their world. Each page delightfully unfolds with vibrant, engaging illustrations and endearing stories...
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...
Let love (and welcome, inclusion, knowledge, and action) be the first motion!
In response to events and news stories, how can we parent, work with children, model activism and take care of ourselves? This article explores how to find support in the circle of people around us, whether in our families, Meeting, or the wider world of Friends....
Crossing the Threshold: Preparing to Welcome Families
"How do meeting communities prepare and engage in active invitation to families and children? When a family walks through the door of a meeting, there are three sets of needs we should be prepared to support: the spiritual formation of their children, the spiritual...
Quaker Parenting Initiative
The Quaker Parenting Initiative seeks to nurture parents on their spiritual journey as they strive to integrate principles of human development with their Quaker faith while living with and guiding their children. This website offers a rich array of resources for...
Paths to Quaker Parenting Using Quaker Beliefs, Testimonies, and Practices
Is there a distinctly Quaker way of child rearing? What in Quakerism speaks to how we guide and nurture our children and ourselves as parents? Paths to Quaker Parenting, is the outcome of a group of Quaker parents and grandparents who met for three years to share...
How do Quakers Support Children’s Spirituality? A QuakerSpeak Video
If you bring your children to a Quaker meeting, what will they experience? Part of the QuakerSpeak series from Friends Journal, this brief video excerpts interviews with Friends to explain how Quakers introduce children to silent worship, nurture children's spiritual...