We have a vibrant program for children from pre-school through 9th grade. Our classes meet during each of our worship times—Saturdays at 4:30 p.m. and Sundays at 9 and 11 a.m. Each week children pre-K through 7th grade start out in the Auditorium for a Message for All Ages before heading into their classrooms. This is a valued time for us to be together as a whole congregation. Classes then end at 6 p.m. on Saturdays, 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Sundays. Our 8th and 9th graders go directly to class each week.

We strive to create a strong community within each classroom. We typically have two teachers and one parent helper at each class session to facilitate and support your child’s learning. Classes emphasize the power of the class community at least as much as the substantive curricular content. We hope this community helps your child(ren) feel cared for as they travel through their spiritual journey.

Our CRE program facilitates ethical, social, and spiritual development in our children. We encourage kids to become free-thinking individuals who know and respect themselves and others, and who contribute to their human and natural communities.

Our goals include:

• Create a feeling of community within the classroom and the congregation, and for children to experience FUS as their spiritual “home.”
• Help children and youth understand the historical roots of UU and the contemporary expressions of our faith.
• Promote values that strengthen them to stand against all forms of prejudice and oppression.
• Develop respect for the interdependent nature of all existence.
• Inspire an appreciation for our Judeo-Christian heritage and the world’s other great religions.
• Guide and support children and youth in the development and expression of a personal faith.
• Encourage participants to act with integrity, responsibility, equity, and love.

Our pre-K – 5th grade classes combine two grade levels and rotate each year. Roughly speaking, every other year your child will have a class that focuses on Unitarian Universalism. On opposite years we offer a class that otherwise expresses our principles and priorities. Our classes for 6th – 9th grades are consistent from one year to the next.

2017/18 – beginning Saturday, September 9, and ending Sunday, May 20

• Celebrating Me & My World (pre-K)
• Experiences with the Web of Life (K-1st gr.)
• Holidays and Holy Days/Moral Tales (2nd–3rd gr.)
• Bibleodeon (4th-5th gr.)
• Building Brides (6th gr. Sat. and Sun. @ 9; 6th & 7th gr. Sun. @ 11 a.m.)
• Compass Points (7th gr., Sat. and Sun. @ 9 a.m.)
• Mind, Body & Soul (8th gr., Sat. and Sun. @ 9)
• Coming of Age (9th gr., Sat. and Sun. @ 9)

2018/19 – beginning Saturday, September 8, and ending Sunday, May 19

• Chalice Children (pre-K)
• Treasure Hunting (K-1st gr.)
• Free to Believe (2nd-3rd gr.)
• Exploring Our Origins (4th-5th gr.)
• Building Bridges (6th gr., Sat. and Sun. @ 9)
• Compass Points (7th gr. Sat. and Sun. @ 9; 6th and 7th gr. Sun. @ 11)
• Mind, Body and Soul (8th gr.)
• Coming of Age (9th gr. Sat. and Sun. @ 9)

It is important that together we do all we can to assure our children’s safety. We take several precautions toward that end. They include:

• Conducting background checks on all our volunteer teachers, our child care coordinator and youth advisors.
• Requiring that two adults be present with a child or group of children at all times.
• Requiring that our teens working in the child care program have all taken a babysitter’s certification class through the YMCA, Red Cross, or some other established program.
• Asking that parents of younger children (those in child care and in our pre-K through 1st grade classes) sign out their children when they pick them up at the end of class.