Taking It Home Information for Families
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Spirit Play (4-5 year-olds):
This week children worked with the story “Little Penguin,” which focused on honesty, and the Red Promise of
respecting all people by being truthful.
Wondering Questions:
Grades K-2: Wonderful Welcome
Taking It Home, Session 1: The Gift Of Love
Love is something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out. You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything.
– Annie Sullivan
IN TODAY’S SESSION…
This program uses a Wonder Box that contains different items in each session to introduce the children to a particular intangible gift. In this first session, the Wonder Box was empty to reinforce the idea that intangible gifts, such as today’s gift of love, cannot be seen. The story, The Real Gift is about a child who makes a blanket with his grandmother. The child is upset when the blanket is lost, but the grandmother explains that the real gift was the time they spent together and that gift can never be lost.
The children learned the song “Little Drummer Boy” and discussed the meaning of the intangible gift given by a poor boy who could not offer gifts of gold. The children also played with shadows to illustrate something real that they can see but not touch.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about…
Talk about some special times you have spent together as a family and with friends. Identify some times when children gave or received material gifts and times when no material gifts were exchanged. Take turns trying to name the intangible gifts each of you gave or received when you were together with people you love.
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try…
The Faith in Action activity for this session partners children with an adult in the congregation to make a craft together. The older partner takes the finished craft home. The children, however, know they, too, leave with a gift – the time spent making something together with someone in their community. You can find simple crafts appropriate for younger and older people to do together at home on the All Free Crafts (www.allfreecrafts.com/indexpage.htm) website.
FAMILY DISCOVERY
See if your congregational library has or wishes to order the book (www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=707) A Lamp in Every Corner: A Unitarian Universalist Storybook by Janeen K. Grohsmeyer (Boston
Grades 3-5: Windows and Mirrors
Taking It Home, Session 1: Looking In/looking Out
Unitarian Universalists seek always to discover deeper truth and meaning in our lives and in our experience of the world. — Gail Forsyth-Vail
IN TODAY'S SESSION...
The children heard the story of Charles Darwin, who followed his own path to become a naturalist despite his father's expectations that he become a physician. Darwin 's way of perceiving the world gave humankind the gift of his observations and conclusions about life on Earth and our place within it.
We talked about being true to oneself. We explored the unique and changeable nature of how we view the world. The children made an outer self-portrait (how others see them) and an inner self-portrait of thoughts, wishes and dreams.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER.
Talk about what it means to observe carefully and why and how we each use a unique lens as we look at our world. What does it mean that each person sees things differently?
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER.
Try a family activity. Everyone gets a clean sock. Decorate the outer part of the sock with buttons, ribbon, and other materials found around the house. For the inside of your sock, write or draw on little pieces of paper your thoughts, wishes and dreams. Fold these and place them inside. You might like to fill each sock in a ceremonious way, with a candle-lighting to begin and words for each person's sock-filling such as:
Bless (family member), beloved inside and out.
Invite family members to share what they have written on the paper and talk about what it reveals.
FAMILY ADVENTURE
Walk through your home together and examine your windows. Are they framed as decorations or "dressed" in a way that encourages people to look outward? Or walk outside. Do your windows invite looking in or are they closed to outside passers-by?
Middle School: Riddle and Mystery
Taking It Home, Session 1: The Big Questions
Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt. — Paul Tillich
Talk about the quote. Paul Tillich was a religious philosopher who lived from 1886 to 1965. He seems to be saying that being religious means asking and trying to answer big questions. Do you agree with that? Do you think most Unitarian Universalists agree with that?
WHAT WE DID TODAY
We talked about big questions in general and one in particular: "Where do we come from?" We heard a song that includes the question and says "life is a riddle and a mystery." We talked about some of our own answers, and we heard a story that explains everything by saying it is "turtles all the way down." We set up our WCUU television studio and did a WCUU broadcast about some UU ideas about where we come from.
ANSWERING TODAY'S BIG QUESTION
What do family members and friends have to say about the question: "Where do we come from?"
HAVE FUN
Find your own way to have fun with questions. Play a question-based game, like Jeopardy. Try some riddles. Or, play Twenty Questions: One player thinks up the name of a person, place or object that others have to guess by asking "yes" or "no" questions. Whoever gets the answer (by asking "Is it so-and-so? (or such-and-such?)" is the winner and gets to think up the next challenge. Consider a round or two of Twenty Questions about people and things connected to your religion and congregation.
PHOTO CHALLENGE
Photograph something that makes you ask a question. What might that be? A grand piano in the middle of a field would make you ask, "What is that doing there?" Maybe you look out a window and see a bird feeder that makes you ask, "What kind of birds come there?" or "Does it need to be filled?" Bring your photo to the next session of Riddle and Mystery.
SHARED SEARCH
Visit a place that can help you answer big questions. What will it be? A church? A museum? Where else can you go?
FAMILY RITUALS
The sessions of Riddle and Mystery all begin with a chalice lighting ritual. Many other UU events also include rituals. Rituals are not just for religions. Families have rituals, too — ways they usually act together on certain occasions. You might have rituals that you follow together on holidays like Hanukkah or Christmas. Some families share the ritual of beginning each meal by saying grace, or thanks. What are some of your rituals? Where did they come from? Are they connected with your religious ideas? Do they help your family affirm or celebrate something else?
NIGHT WALK
Take a family walk to look at the sky on a nice, clear night. What do you see? What questions come to mind? Think if you were a cave person who lived many centuries ago and never saw a science book. Would your questions be different? Would the places you looked for answers be different?
TEACHING THE SONG
Share the song from the session with your family. It is ""Where Do We Come From?" Maybe you can borrow a copy of Singing the Journey to look at the music together; the song is Hymn 1003.
FAMILY FAITH IN ACTION
Look around your home for images of people working for economic justice. Include books, magazines and newspaper articles, as well as congregational and community service projects that involve your family members.
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