Mar. 31, 2019 -- Celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility

Sunday March 31, 2019

Today's focus: Celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility 

Welcome: Welcome In song and chalice lighting

Introductions: Names and "Where would you like to journey to?"

Movement activity: Different ways to journey around the room (kids came up with ideas like flying, hopping, sliding, twirling, and more).  

Discussion: 

• We followed up on the book Introducing Teddy.  We talked about how it's important to dress and act how you want, and that being a good friend is the most important.  (We talked about how some boys may like to wear nail polish or fancy jewelry or dresses, but still feel like a boy and they are not transgender.) 

• I introduced the terms gender and transgender.  We did talk about how sometimes a boy might wear a skirt or dress and that doesn't necessarily mean they are transgender, just they like wearing dresses.  

• We talked about how some people don't feel like genders we usually hear talked about.  If someone doesn't feel like a boy/man or girl/woman, or if they feel like BOTH genders, they may use they/them pronouns, or others like xe, xem, xeirs (x pronounced like a z).  It's good to ask someone what pronouns they use, just to make sure.  We talked about the pronoun stickers for name tags at church, at the Welcoming Congregations table.  

Activities: 

Gender stereotype sort: Kids had fun sorting a pile of toys, books, jewelry, clothes and other items into three piles...   Boys, Girls, and Both (during the 11am I realized "All genders" would be more inclusive that 'Both' and changed it).  

At the 9am, most kids agreed right away that nothing was JUST for boys or JUST for girls.  They had good reasons for each item.  

During the 11am the kids put many things in 'Both' but enjoyed sorting some things based on who USUALLY likes those things the most.  They were clear that it was FINE if someone from a different gender wanted to dress in a princess dress and that you could step in if you heard a kid saying, "That's only for boys" or "That's only for girls" and mention that all toys, clothes, colors, and even make-up can be for anyone!   

Two older kids during the 9am looked at the current restroom signage in the vestry and made a recommendation for a more gender inclusive sign.  They made a display for coffee hour.  We discussed this as a whole group during the 11am service (in the 9am we watched the dance portion of the service instead).  

Continue the conversation at home:  

• Try a role play at home, of someone telling a kid that "boys can't be princesses", or "girls can't be firemen."  What would be a kind way to help teach them?     

• What are some gender neutral words for: fireman (firefighter) mail man (mail courier), police man (police officer), stewardess (flight attendant), waitress (server)   

•   Read (or watch these video links) of these fabulous books:

1. I am Jazz   by Jessica Hershel and Jazz Jennings
2. Jacob's New Dress by Sarah and Ian Hoffman
3. Red by Michael Hall

March 17, 2019 - Stewardship Work and Play Party

Recap of Kids/Youth Spiritual Exploration

We had a great turnout of kids yesterday.  Thank you!  It really makes the experience richer for everyone to have more of us here more of the time.  I know it isn't easy, but as much as you CAN make it happen, consistency is really helps in so many ways. 

It was also Tristan's first time back in the Children's Chapel (11am) since he's developed vocal tics.  I was really impressed with how the other children were able to focus on whatever we were doing, and not make Tristan feel self-conscious.  He seemed pretty comfortable and we'll hope he comes back again soon!  Please congratulate your child on focusing on the time together, not on the tics.      

Sunday March 17​, 2019

Today's focus:​  Work and Play Party​ 

​We followed up with last week's focus on being a steward of places we care about--sharing of our time, talent, and/or treasure (money).  Since kids don't have much money, we focused on having time to donate to taking care of the building. 

Main takeaway: ​Giving of our time to a place we care about feels good, especially when everyone is pitching in together.  

Activities: 

1. We began with the welcome song​ then s​hared names and ​a gem of ​either a Joy/Concern. 

2​. Reviewed that you can be a steward of home, church, your local community, or the Earth/international community.  

3. Despite some dubious looks at first, the kids did a wonderful job cleaning and most got really enthusiastic about it.  They cleaned the marker and paint stains off the tables (9am) and dusted the molding in the Children's Chapel and (at 11am) we broke into small groups and dusted many other parts of the church too.  Preschool and K took care of their classroom--including organizing the supply shelf.  At each service we made time for some games too, including Telephone, Going on a Journey and I'm Bringing... (9am), song withe motions (11am PreK and K) Simon Says (11am 1st-8th)​. 

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4​. Rev. Joan joined us at the very end of the 11am time to talk about her journey to Honduras.  

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Continue the conversation at home: 

• ​Did you share a Joy / Concern?
• What did you do as a steward for the church?  How did it feel to work hard and leave the church cleaner than before?
• Could our family be stewards together and host the Snack table?  
  
  

  Snack volunteer sign-up sheet here.  
  Most kids LOVE helping with this, especially if you let them really help. 
  Details here: How to Host the Snack Table.  
• For 11am: How did you do ignoring the vocal tics Tristan was having?  What did you notice?  Do you have questions?  (Attached below is a picture of our brainstorm around tics.)

Besides the fabulous hard work of the kids, many thanks to the youth, parents and adult volunteers who helped the service project happen!  

Upcoming Sunday (March 24) ​Tanzania: A Journey of the Heart ​UCM Member, artist, and educator, Irina Markova, will share highlights of her journey to Tanzania in early winter.  She spent several weeks volunteering in a one-room school in a rural village.  She'll share her photos, some objects she brought back, but mainly the joyful stories of connecting with others.  There will be several times for small group interactions to engage the kids.  Small group charades to experience how you communicate without shared language.  What are a few of the most important words to learn in another language when on a journey?  We'll also make rhythms using percussion instruments, which need no words!  

With ​appreciation,

Liza

March 10, 2019 - How Can I Be a Steward?

Despite the time change and dicey icy sidewalks or slush we're so glad so many of you made it to church last Sunday.  Bravo!  Since a big goal of the Stewardship Committee this year is to build and grow a church culture of appreciation and generosity, we decided it was essential to include children in some discussion of the Annual Budget Drive.  

Focus: "How Can I Be a Steward?" 

Main takeaways: 

• Places we care about like our home and our church, don't exist magically.  They exist because of the time, talent, and treasure(donations of money) shared generously by the people of the congregation. 
• A person who helps care for a place is called a steward.   

Activities: 

1. We began with the welcome song and stretches to get our wiggles out. 

2. Shared names and either a Joy/Concern (9am) or a Way We Help out at Home (11am).  

3. Sorted over a dozen items connected to being a steward of either home, church, local community or the world (community or planet Earth).  

Examples: 

• Broom = we can sweep at home or at church to help clean up after a messy snack.  
• Kids piano book = we can share our talents, like singing or making music, during worship (kids are always invited to help with prelude or postlude)
• Bottle = we can recycle to be stewards of the earth
• Order of Service = adults and some kids give their time ushering at church
• Community pouch = we can give money to help our local organizations and the church  

4. Pledge Brochure and Fair Share Guidelines

The kids had fun finding their friends or even themselves in the pictures in the brochure. We looked at the Fair Share Guidelines just long enough to note we want to be fair and want people to feel welcome to give WHATEVER amount works for them.  It wouldn't be fair to ask some people for $500, if they have nothing to spare at all, and that for others, they might be able to give far more than $500.  Maybe over the heads of the preschoolers but the others seemed to key in pretty well.  

Continue the conversation at home:  

• Do you remember the signs for each way people contribute to our church community?   
• Time (pointing to wrist, like a watch)
• Talent (arms out with fingers wiggling--like: "Ta da!")
• Treasure (hold hand up in air and rub thumb against fingers) 

• Who are some of the people at church that you see being stewards (helping)? ... greeters, ushers, the choir (volunteer their time and talent), Kids Snack Table hosts, baristas...  

• If/when your family makes a pledge talk with your kids about WHY you do this and what about our church inspires you do do it.  Have them help seal the envelope you put your pledge in (feel free to keep the amount private from your kids if you wish), and have them write UCM on the envelope!  They can put it in the box on Sunday in the vestry.  Make sure you all where the "I PLEDGED" pins with pride through the end of the drive on Mar. 24th.  If you can't make a pledge, maybe you can make a plan for a way you can share your time or talent with the church.  

• If they would like to give some small amount, we'll talk on Sunday to see if they'd like to start to having a Community Pouch that we pass during the Children's Chapel.  They could put in a small coin if they want, or just pass it along. Many churches do this in their kids time.  

Upcoming Sunday (Mar. 17): We'll give some of our LSE TIME to the church with stewardship projects.  Ideas that came up on Sunday: scrubbing some of the art marks off the tables we use.  Dusting, cleaning the wooden molding around our classrooms and the building.  Sharpen pencils, check markers for working/not working.  We'll make sure there's some choice involved and some kind of game bookending the work time!  

February 24, 2019 -- Symbols of other Faiths

Welcome song and some stretching to get our wiggles out, followed by:

• A review of this month's theme of Faith.  
• Belief in something even if you don't have proof of it
• You can believe in yourself that you can do something hard--(learn to play piano, or learning to read, etc.).  
• You can have faith in friends and family that they can do their best too, or that they will be there to help you. 
• The flaming chalice is the symbol of our Unitarian Universalist faith (set of beliefs) or religion
• Practiced the ASL sign for Faith.  

Today's focus: "Symbols of Other Faiths" 

Spiritual Theme: Unitarian Universalists believe there is much wisdom in many of the world religions and others faiths.  Becoming more familiar with the symbols of other faiths is a step in learning more about them.  

Activity 1: World Religions field trip via books

Kids worked by themselves or in pairs doing a picture walk through books with beautiful images from other religions.  They used post-its to mark a picture they wanted to share with the whole group.

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Symbol explore: Each child was given a symbol of a faith group and we matched it with the faith / religion it goes with.  Then we created a display of six symbols for them to take home to their houses using dot paint and stencils.  If you left yours here to dry, find it in the Preschool room next time you're at church.  

Closing: Every faith has some powerful symbol(s) to go with it, along with stories and rituals we can learn a lot from. As UUs, we seek to learn more about our own beliefs by asking questions and learning more about other faiths.   

 Continue the conversation at home:  

• What was the picture you found in the book on other faiths/religions?
• Look at the display they made.  (Or at this link if they didn't bring it home yet.)  How is each symbol different or similar to the others?  What symbol do they think is the most interesting?  
• Can you draw any of the symbols without a stencil?  (Take turns trying.)
• Keep an eye out for any of these symbols as you drive around or look in books.   

Reminders: 

If you haven't done so yet, PLEASE take our Family Survey, created by parent Joel Dennison and others, to help us know what you need most, and how parents might best support one another within our congregation. 

This is the last week to sign up for March Mystery Madness.  See the link in the e-news or do so during Coffee Hour this Sunday (absolute final deadline--pairings will happen right after the noon Coffee Hour.  

Worship theme for March: Journey

Sun. March 3

9am Spiritual Exploration: Journey to the Border

Abby Colihan shares her story of going to El Paso Texas recently to help at the border with the asylum seekers there.  

11am Journey of Friendship

Friendships can be a journey, sometimes beginning with a single shared game together.  After a story, time will be made for fellowship and fun with games for different age levels.  Kids are welcome to bring a favorite game from home (that is pretty easy to learn and quick to set-up and play).    

Thank you and wishing you some special times during this vacation week,

Liza     (More pictures posted below)

February 16, 2019 - Adult Workshop on Active Listening

Many thanks to facilitator Patty Crawford for offering her workshop on Active Listening again this year.  Ten people participated in Part I, with Part II coming this Saturday.  (You have to have participated in Part I to do Part II though.).

Patty reports that it was a very thoughtful discussion, and participants were really thoughtfully engaged with the activities.

This is a beloved workshop in our congregation, one that Patty has offered other years as well. It always receives rave reviews, with participants saying it really improves their communication and enriches the relationships with others.

Here are some starter phrases, followed by a brainstorm of different feelings that we bring to situations and conversations.

We hope to offer this workshop again in the future!

February 3, 2019 - Faith in Ourselves and One Another

Sunday Feb. 3, 2019

Introduction:

• Simon Says to get our wiggles out
• Names & Gems of Joy and Concern (just like the adults do Candles of Joy and Concern). At the 11am we followed this with the chorus to this song "I am sending you light..."  
• Introduce this month's theme of Faith. Practiced the ASL sign for Faith.  

Today's focus: "Faith in Ourselves and One Another" (faith in terms of TRUST)

Spiritual Theme: Learning to have faith in ourselves, our friends, and family is key to getting through challenging times in our lives. 

Activities: We'll engage in various trust building activities, starting off small and then building up.  

Trust Yourself: Stone Pass 

Children are seated in a circle and put their hands behind their back or close their eyes while they feel their stone (we let the littlest ones peek).  Then the stones are collected, mixed up, and then passed slowly around the circle.  When each person recognizes their stone, they hold on to it.  They have to have faith in themselves that they know their stone.  

Trust Others: The Human Zipper and the Floating Hula Hoop (aka "Helium Stick").  Descriptions here. 

Closing: Keeping Faith when we feel lonely, scared, or like we can't do it.  Examples from the kids/adult volunteers: sledding down a scary hill, a presentation for school / speaking in front of a large group of people, swim lessons, playing alone downstairs without our siblings, climbing a ladder.    

 Song: Courage, My Friends

Other Faith Sundays in February:

Feb. 3 ~ Faith in Ourselves and One Another

Feb. 10 ~ 7 Principles of our UU Faith in Song, Show and Art

Feb. 17 ~ The Flaming Chalice and Our Inner Faith: Multigenerational Worship Service

Feb. 24 ~ Examples of other Faiths (We'll invite a guest or two to talk with us about their faith.  Please let me know if you have ideas of someone who would be good.). 

Continue the conversation at home:  

• How did you tell your stone apart from the other stones?  Did you have faith you would be able to tell it apart from the other stones?
• Can you think of a time when someone else had faith you could do something, but YOU didn't think you could do it (I shared an example of a running coach who knew I could beat my best time, and I didn't think I could.  But I did!). 
• For the Human Zipper, we had to have faith that others were paying attention to keep the game safe.  What are other examples of when we have to trust others? (Ideas: when we have a friend over and share our toys we have faith they'll be gentle with them.  When we share a Joy or Concern at church, we trust others will listen and won't laugh at us.  The elders at Coffee Hour trust the kids will walk, instead of running--and won't knock them over.). 

See how many examples of having Faith in yourself or others your family notices this week!  I will be away next Sunday, but Janet Poeton will be filling my place and I have faith the children will do a wonderful job remembering our covenant of being kind to themselves and others!  

Reminders: 

Please take our Family Survey, created by parent Joel Dennison and others, to help us know what you need most, and how parents might best support one another within our congregation. You'lll be entered to win a localvore basket!

Sign-ups for March Mystery Madness will start in the next week or two.  Stay tuned for more details.  

Thank you for a great start to our Faith exploration in February, 

Liza