First Parish of Watertown

First Parish of Watertown invites all of our children to join together for meaningful worship and growth.  We want our children to personally experience our Unitarian Universalist faith and all the wonderful ideals that it embodies. 

In our Religious Education program, we will share stories and activities that bring our UU faith to life.  Most significantly, we will spend time together sharing worship and wonder, love and friendship, kindness and compassion, and enlightenment and growth.  We will highlight the fundamental UU belief that we are all free to believe our own truths.  We will celebrate a coming together that honors the unique individuality we all carry with us. It is with these affirmations that we will think about those challenging “life” questions that people of all religions wonder about - Is there a God?  How did the world begin?  What happens when we die?  Is there any benefit to praying or meditating?  How do I know what to believe?  How can we make our world a better place?

To do this, we have created and selected engaging and age-appropriate UU curricula to guide our activities.  To learn more about the specific activities we do with our children, please speak to our DRE and she would be happy to show you the different curricula we are using.  You can also see a schedule of your child’s activities on our special website for First Parish families at www.chalicedreamer.net

One component of our children’s religious education will be the opportunity to participate in small group explorations of our UU faith. These small groups will enable our children and youth to deepen their UU Faith in settings that are designed to be safe, nurturing, and developmentally appropriate.  Except for our Youth Group, all meetings happen on Sunday mornings.

All youth 14 and older are invited to join our Youth Group which meets primarily on Sunday evenings.  The activities and meeting times are determined by the interests of the group and range from meeting other UU youth to inspiring community service projects. Their activities include growth opportunities in the areas of worship, youth-adult relations, connection, social action, learning, and leadership.  This group always has lots of fun together!

This small group offers our 11 to 14-year-olds more autonomy as they begin carrying our UU principles into the world with deeper theological explorations, unique activities, and inspiring community service projects.  Our Principle Activators will spend the first half of the year exploring “Art and the UU Sources”.  They will get to know each of the six sources more deeply as they engage in art projects that will inspire them.  Most of our Principle Activators will spend the second half of the year doing Our Whole Lives.  The UUA writes, “Our Whole Lives helps participants make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behavior. It equips participants with accurate, age-appropriate information in six subject areas: human development, relationships, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society and culture. Grounded in a holistic view of sexuality, Our Whole Lives provides not only facts about anatomy and human development, but helps participants to clarify their values, build interpersonal skills, and understand the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of sexuality.”

This small group offers our 8 to 11-year-olds the freedom to travel around our world and explore how other traditions can meaningfully enhance our own UU faith. This year, we will be using a UU curricula, Timeless Themes. Each week, we will share a universal human "life theme" and a Bible story that relates to that theme. The kids will break up into three "workshop" groups (art, theater, and games) to do further exploration of the "life theme" and consider the messages they heard in the Bible story. As Unitarian Universalists, we will encourage critical thinking and welcome the children to agree or disagree with any messages heard. We will also invite the children to consider if they have heard the same messages or even counter-messages from any other sources. We hope this process of exploring "life themes" can inspire our growing children in the unique way they live their lives.  We also hope that by offering our UU Travelers an introduction to Bible stories with the UU lense of “free thinking”, they will feel more confident when they encounter cultural and social references to the Bible.  

This small group offers our 5 to 8-year-olds an exciting adventure as they explore their UU faith by trying to capture the spirit of our UU principles and sources.  This year, our UU Explorers will do SpiritPlay, a UU program that highlights wondering, great stories, freedom to choose, affirming structure, reality and nature, beauty and order, engaging materials, and community.  It uses a Montessori approach and is inspired by Jerome W. Berryman’s Godly Play, which is a Christian program with an emphasis on the function of religious language in the moral and spiritual development of children.  With inspiring stories, wondering questions, freedom to choose their own exploratory work, and community rituals, we are sure our UU Explorers will have a wonder-filled, wonderful time! 

This small group offers our 2 to 5-year-olds the chance to to learn about our UU faith simply by doing some fun activities with their friends.  This year, our Rainbow Seekers will be doing Friendship Finders, a popular UU pre-school curricula created by our DRE, Roberta Altamari. Friendship Finders is a fabulous and unique activity guide that includes a variety of age-appropriate and engaging activities on UU themes. While the themes are simplified highlights of our UU principles, the goal of this curriculum is simply to offer structure that empowers each child to feel comfortable and confident about coming here. With great picture books, song suggestions, fun activities, and coloring pages to scribble on, we will have fabulous gatherings for our Rainbow Seekers!

Chalice Babies (ages birth to 1 ½  years) are welcome to stay with a parent in the worship service or go with a parent to our nursery where the baby can play while the parents listen to the worship service.  The DRE can arrange for an adult babysitter in the nursery for anyone who wants this support … let her know if you would like to try this.