Children's Programs

This page has:
A Curriculum for the children's Sunday School classes
A mission statement, written in 1833
An editorial comment about mission statements and courage
Links for kids.

Our Child and Youth Safety Policy is a separate page.

We provide free child care in our Nursery (picture) for toddlers and infants during the service. Children in Kindergarten and older take part in the first part of the service, then go out to their Sunday School classes. During the "Church Year", September to June, when we have two services, we have supervised play for the children at our 9:30 service and classes for children at our 11:00 service. Most people with children come to the 11:00 service. During the summer, when we have just one service at 10:00, they are in the service for the first part, then go out to their Sunday school classes.

Curriculum - Spring 2010:

This Summer the children will be studying people with disabilities; learning ot sign "Spirit of Life" and hearing about the blind. In the fall of 2010 we will be doing "In Our Hands", a peace and social justice curriculum for grades 4-7.

Mission Statement:

This is what Unitarian Universalists believe about religious education. It was written in 1833. It rings down through the ages. Even back then our denomination didn't put much emphasis on memorizing the Bible. Like many goals, we don't always reach it. We try. Not all joggers run a marathon and not all little league pitchers go on to play in the majors. See below for an editorial opinion about goals.

The great end in religious instruction is:

• Not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own;
  
• Not to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own;
  
• Not to give them a definite amount of knowledge, but to inspire a fervent love of truth;
  
• Not to form an outward regularity, but to touch inward springs;
  
• Not to bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular sect or peculiar notions, but to prepare them for impartial, conscientious judging of whatever subjects may be offered to their decision;
  
• Not to burden the memory, but to quicken and strengthen the power of thought;
  
• Not to impose religion upon them in the form of arbitrary rules, but to awaken the conscience, the moral discernment.
  

In a word, the great end is to awaken the soul, to excite and cherish spiritual life.

William Ellery Channing (1780 - 1842).

[This is responsive reading 652 in our Hymnal.]

Below:

[Editorial comment]

There's a young man in our little town who was born with a rare bone defect. His legs are withered and twisted. They slow him down, but he doesn't let small things stop him. For years he was on our town swim team. He entered the 50-yard freestyle race at every meet. He would roll his wheel chair to the starting block and clamber up; then, when the buzzer went off, jump in and flail away with his arms alone. He always finished last. To a man, woman and child we considered the first three words of that sentence - "he always finished" - to be 412 times more important than the word "last". No one ever had to put DNF (Did Not Finish) next to his name. They never had to mark him ATT (Afraid To Try), either. I think of him whenever someone on a committee mentions writing a mission statement.

Keep your head above water, do the best you can with what you have and never, never, never give up; there's a mission statement for you!

Channing's goals are noble. If we succeeded completely with everyone who came to our Sunday School, we'd end up with children who could discuss obtuse points with learned theologians - over Happy Meals. ("Well said, Rev. Merton. Can I have your toy?") We don't always succeed completely with our goals. We do the best we can with what we have. Our volunteer RE teachers know our children are each special. They come from different economic, religious and ethnic backgrounds. We cherish each one. We try to encourage them to think for themselves.

Ted Pack
Hughson, California

Kids Links:

A list of links for kids - either things in Stanislaus County to visit in person, or web sites to visit from home.

Great Valley Museum of Natural History
This little museum, next to Modesto Junior College, has hands-on exhibits, classes and lectures.

Hubble Space Telescope Pictures
The glory of the infinite cosmos, in full color. Awe-inspiring pictures from galaxies long ago and far away.

Kendall's Garden
A small virtual garden, with flowers and butterflies, set up in memory of Kendall Sparkman (25 August 1990 - 12 March 1999) by her friends at the Fremont Open Plan School.

M A P S
For something completely different, Modesto Area Partners in Science presents fun-filled, educational and entertaining lectures at Modesto Junior College on Friday evenings every couple of weeks during the school year. Most of the lectures are for all ages, some for 13 and up, a rare few for 16 and up.

Our Whole Lives (OWL) This is a human sexuality curriculum created by a joint task force of the UUA and the UCC. Our church uses it. This link is for parents.

The Tuolumne River Trust gives talks about the Tuolumne River and local habitat restoration projects going on there. Our youth have been participating. TRT has lots of family friendly activities as well.