Religious Education

Childcare infant to Preschool

The Nursery is place where children from infancy through three years will feel welcome, comfortable, and at home. The Nursery is staffed for every service.

Preschool three year olds to 2nd Grade

Spirit Play guides children in living into their own answers to the existential questions: Where did we come from? What are we doing here? How do we choose to live our lives? The structure and key elements of the classroom are based on the Montessori philosophy. Each class begins with a story, told by the teacher and reinforced by using physical materials from the story.

Following the story, the class considers some wondering questions, and then the children are free to choose an art response to the story, working at their own pace on their own issues. This accommodates children with a broad variety of learning styles to process the stories' meaning from the stories in their own way. The class ends with gathering, reflection and snack.

Grades 3 and 4

Moral Tales Every day our children go forth into a complex world where they are often faced with difficult  decisions and situations. Moral Tales attempts to provide children with the spiritual and ethical tools they will need  to make choices and take actions reflective of their Unitarian Universalist beliefs and values.

Grades 5 and 6

Bibleodeon – like the Nickelodeon television channel that inspired its name, Bibleodean tells stories. This is a hands-on curriculum for active children, in which participants explore connections between biblical events and UU principles and values, and between biblical ideas and their own lives. They experience the Hebrew and Christian Bible as one of our many wonderful and important UU sources.

Grades 7 and 8

These two years combine Compass Points where our youth focus on clarifying personal beliefs and values, and Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education or OWL, which is a comprehensive approach to human sexuality presented by a team of trained adult OWL teachers in an age-appropriate manner, based firmly on the values of respect, responsibility, justice and inclusiveness. OWL helps young people apply these values to their behavior and provides them with information and skills they can use throughout life.

This program requires parents' attendance at a Parent Orientation, and a commitment from the youth.

Jr. Youth Group

 The Junior Youth Group is a program for 5th-8th grade youth. It gives them the opportunity to bond with each other and create a community where they can feel safe, be themselves, talk play, be creative, and break bread together in the company of trained adult advisors. The group meets the second and fourth Fridays of most months from 6:45-9:00 pm.

Youth Group

YRUU (Young Religious Unitarian Universalists) High School Youth Group activities include social action projects, youth-led services, attendance at youth conferences, and a variety of fun, community-building activities. All youth meetings and activities take place with the assistance of the four trained adult Youth Group advisors. YRUU  has an event each weekend--some evenings, some off-site, and meets on some Sundays at 11:15.

On most Sundays, our younger children begin with a brief Children’s Service, an age-appropriate spiritual and educational experience. This gives our younger ones the space to express themselves, the gift of being heard, to develop a strong sense of self and community sharing. Older classes use a ritual opening in their class groups. About once a month, adults and children spend the first twenty minutes together in the Meeting Room and then break out into their class groups.

You can check our schedule by clicking on the calendar on this website.

Jr. Youth Group

The Junior Youth Group is a program for 5th-8th grade youth. It gives them the opportunity to bond with each other and create a community where they can feel safe, be themselves, talk play, be creative, and break bread together in the company of trained adult advisors. The group meets the second and fourth Fridays of most months from 6:45-9:00 pm.

Senior Youth Group

The High School Youth Group (YRUU) activities include social action projects, youth–led services, attendance at youth run conferences and a variety of fun, community – building activities. YRUU (Young Religious Unitarian Universalists) have an event or gathering each weekend. It meets most Sundays at 11:15pm. The youth also participate in district wide conference retreats quarterly. These gathering throughout the Tri–State area are organized and run by the YRUU with Advisor supervision. Varying spiritual and topical subjects are explored determined by the interest of the organizing youth.

Nursery Care At FUSW

Our nurturing nurserycare program at FUSW is staffed by two childcare workers--one adult and one teenager--to comply with our Safe and Sacred Policy. The program is for children from birth to 3 years old. The children enjoy age-appropriate activities, including music, story-telling, playdough, puzzles, drawing, painting, block building and Legos. Holiday activities are employed when appropriate. There is a rocking chair in the room. Snack is provided. Children are encouraged to interact with one another. Our youngest members enjoy our time together and look forward to coming to our program.

Our Director of Childcare, Brenda Caronia, is a veteran early childhood teacher.