NURSERY
Ages 0-2
Tender loving care is the program in our Nursery.  Children younger than three years of age may be left with our nursery staff beginning at 10am on Sunday mornings and should be picked up before 12:15.  All infants, wobblers and toddlers must be signed in and out on the appropriate clipboard as well as comply with the Kiddie Keepers security tag system.  Nursery staff will assist you with mastering our procedures to ensure the safety and comfort of all our little ones.  Parents or guardians with the correct security band may pick Nursery children up at any time, but we encourage you to pick up older children no earlier than 12:15, as the teachers need to complete their scheduled classes.  Our Nursery is staffed by two amazing individuals.  Deloris is a bit of an institution here and has been in our Nursery for over twenty years.  She has seen many of our children off to college.  Michelle is a high schooler  and an energetic and charismatic young lady.
We have tried to create a comfortable, attractive and safe environment for our babies and toddlers.  They are free to explore the toys and books and will receive a simple snack.  A small refrigerator is located in the nursery for formula or other perishables. 

 

PRESCHOOL & KINDERGARTEN
On Sunday mornings children participate in classes, which are experiential, offering a variety of activities (drama, craft, discussion, stories, music) for our young ones.  A typical Sunday for our preschoolers would include a friendship circle, lighting the chalice, a story (or two), music, crafts and a snack.  The rituals and theme-based activities help to create an atmosphere that invites religious growth and learning.  We encourage our preschool children to explore and participate on a free choice basis.  We want our youngest children to experience what we all seek in a spiritual home: safety, welcome and encouragement.
Our Preschool and Kindergarten class meets in a brightly painted and well-equipped classroom on the ground floor of our Annex.  In this inviting setting the children will also learn about doing things together, taking turns, sharing, and making friends.  Our children also learn about being part of the “Big Church” by attending the opening of the service in the sanctuary every Sunday and by participating in Religious Education programs for all ages.  Our youngest RE children also participate in the annual Holiday Service and the RE Service. 

 

GRADES 1 & 2
Our youngest grade schoolers meet upstairs in Gage Hall.  Families are expected to sit together in the sanctuary during the first part of the service and all children leave together to attend classes.  Grade school children should be collected in the Charleston Day School playground after the church service.  Though many of our children are very comfortable and see the church as a second home, we still want our children to follow these guidelines to ensure their safety.
This year the curriculum for the first and second graders will be Stories About God.  This curriculum offers the children the opportunity to hear a wide variety of stories that present images of God, ones that are in harmony with our Unitarian Universalist principles.  They include stories about God as a mother and stories of God as father.  Some of the stories are about God as fairness, silence, mystery and love.  There are stories about the ways that we can come to know God, ways such as prayer, dreams, or an inner eye.  There are stories about God’s many names, about many pathways to find God, and about UUs’ differing views of God.
Before the story is presented there are activities that help the children to make connections between the images and concepts in the story and their own experiences.  After the story there are opportunities for them to express their own beliefs through conversation, service projects and the arts.  Stories About God aims to offer children of primary school age a wide variety of experiences with that which people call God and to help them develop a language with which they can speak of those experiences.

 

 

 GRADES 3,4 & 5
The class will be working with Stepping-Stone Year.  The curriculum addresses children who are taking their first structured steps in forming religious identities and concepts.   Stepping-Stone Year draws upon science, myth, Unitarian and Universalist traditions, and other secular and spiritual resources to support children in their inquiry.  We will cover important religious questions like:
How did the world begin?
How did life begin?
How did I begin?
How can I live so as to make my life worthwhile?
Why do people die?
What is right and wrong?
How can I make decisions?

  

GRADES 6-8  Middle School
Our Junior High class will be engaged in a favorite curriculum this year.  Neighboring Faiths consists of classroom instruction, field trips, interviews and analyses of a variety of religious traditions.  The curriculum encourages students to engage in world religions, not simply study them.  Never has it been more important to move beyond the recognition of religious diversity to an active engagement and relationship with that diversity; to move beyond tolerance to an energetic engagement and search for understanding; to move to an expanded sense of our Unitarian Universalist identity and a deeper commitment to our faith in relationship with that of others in our communities and our world.
We visit our some of our Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Greek Orthodox, Hindu, AME, Quaker, Buddhist and other neighbors in their places of worship.

  

YOUNG RELIGIOUS UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST  (YRUU)
GRADES 9-12
Our teens meet on Sundays upstairs in Gage Hall and occasionally during the week for special events. We foster community building, social action, leadership development, learning and worship through a variety of activities. 
We attend Youth Cons within the district, have bake sales, attend services, have sleepovers, go for coffee, and chat about school, politics, religion and whatever we are interested in. 
Our YRUU is a youth-empowered group.  With adult supervision, the teens set the calendar for the year and actively create their own environment of trust and accountability.
The YRUU are active in RE sponsored church services, including RE Sunday and the Christmas Eve service. For more about YRUU, see the YRUU page.

 

 
As our children and youth grow within our UU community we strive to teach them:
Looking In – Our UU Identity
Looking Out – World Religions
Looking Back – Our Jewish and Christian Heritage
Looking Around – Living Out Our UU Values: Diversity, Social Responsibility, and Moral Development