Religious Education News – August 30th

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2022-23 Religious Education classes begin on Sunday, 9/25! To register your child(ren), click HERE.
Below is a list of this year’s awesome RE offerings. Please note that this is a tentative schedule while we’re inviting folks to teach, facilitate, and advise. A final schedule will be available soon.

OWL! OWL (Our Whole Lives sexuality education):  Sexuality education programs change lives. Honest, accurate information about sexuality changes lives. It dismantles stereotypes and assumptions, builds self-acceptance and self-esteem, fosters healthy relationships, improves decision making, and has the potential to save lives.
We are once again offering 7/8 OWL classes this coming church year. We will not be offering OWL next year (2023-2024) but returning to our tradition of offering it every other year the following year.
K/1 OWL: We will not be offering K/1 OWL this year, but are providing some important tools for parents, as their children’s primary sexuality educators, to cover topics and skills needed in today’s world…
Under Your Wing: Sexuality Education Video Series for Parents and Caregivers
Under Your Wing is a series of short videos that support parents and caregivers as the primary sexuality educators of their children ages 5-7. In each video, Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller, co-authors of Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education for Grades K-1, 2nd ed., share conversation tips and at-home reading recommendations related to topics children are curious about. Resources mentioned in the videos and many more can be found on this resource list (PDF).
K/1 Wonderful Welcome: In this program, children identify intangible gifts central to Unitarian Universalism such as friendship, hospitality, and fairness, and share these gifts with others.
2/3 Signs of Our Faith: You must decide what you love and do your best to live that love faithfully every day. Signs of Our Faith guides children to do their best to live faithful lives every day. It presents traits or values that most Unitarian Universalists love, including the quest for knowledge, reverence for life, supporting one another on our faith journeys, and public witness. Children examine how their lives do and can exhibit these traits and values and come to understand that their faith is a living faith whose histories and teachings are fortifications for living faithfully in a complex world.
4/5 Love Connects Us: Love Connects Us celebrates important ways Unitarian Universalists live our faith in covenanted community. Moved by love and gathered in spirit, we embrace our responsibility toward one another and the world at large. We encourage one another’s search for truth and meaning. We strive to be active in peace-making and other efforts to improve our world.
6/7 Amazing Grace: This program guides 6th and 7th graders through ways to determine right from wrong with a Unitarian Universalist perspective, and act on their new understandings.
7/8 OWL (begins in November and will run through late May/early June): A sexuality education program for youth that models and teaches caring, compassion, respect, and justice. A holistic program that moves beyond the intellect to address the attitudes, values, and feelings that youth have about themselves and the world.
Unlike many other sexuality curricula currently available, this program is comprehensive and progressive. In an inclusive and developmentally appropriate manner, it addresses sensitive topics that are typically excluded.
9/10 Coming of Age (COA): Coming of Age is a yearlong curriculum that helps teens learn more about Unitarian Universalism and articulate their own beliefs. Our program is sensitive to culture, race, class, gender, and theological/philosophical diversity. Workshops for youth include social justice projects and rites of passage. Participants explore theology, spirituality, and history through discussion, drama, music, writing, and art. The program concludes with a ritual that features the youth sharing their statements of personal belief (credo statements) with the congregation during Sunday morning worship.
9/12 Senior Youth: Senior Youth will meet for discussion, curriculum work, games, and social justice work. Whether delivering an “elevator speech,” taking part in an interfaith dialogue, or conversing with friends at the lunch table, youth need practice in describing our multifaceted faith in terms that are personally meaningful and true.

Children’s Chapel!

Children in grades K-6 are invited to join us for some Children’s Chapel fun on Sunday, 9/11, in Waters House. We’ll meet at 10:25 so parents have time to make their way back across the street for a special 9/11 service.

Nursery Reopening!

We are planning to re-open the UUSS nursery on Sunday, 9/11! We still have one staff position available. If you know someone 18 or older who is fabulous with children and might like to earn a little extra cash, please have them contact Director of Lifespan RE Robin Ahearn at dlre@uuschenectady.org.

Evening Canoe & Kayaking UPDATE!

The paddle outing that was scheduled for last week has been rescheduled to Tuesday, 9/6, at 6pm. Meet at the Mohawk Valley Marina, Alplaus (map link below). We can launch into the Mohawk River, explore the outlet of the Alplaus Creek, and maybe go around a nearby island. Our launch location is a marina business, and they request $3 per canoe or kayak launched. We can cover this cost for our participants.
Forecast shows a chance of scattered showers. If light rain or a passing shower, we will go anyway. Heavy rain, or any chance of thunder/lightning, we will cancel.
Don’t have canoe or kayak? Equipment is available! RSVP to Randy and Robin appreciated!
Family Paddle UPDATE!
Our all-day youth paddle originally scheduled for 8/27, has been rescheduled to Saturday, 9/17 (rain date 9/18 right after Ingathering) and expanded to include all families! Youth 11 and up may attend on their own with a completed permission slip (to be sent in a parent email). Children 10 and under must be accompanied by an adult caretaker. If you’d like to join us, be sure to bring along a water bottle and packed lunch.
RSVP is appreciated. If you need equipment, please indicate this to Randy & Robin.