The song "Simple Gifts" is, I think, something of a Friendly anthem. Here are my reflections on the meaning of the words:

"'Tis the gift to be simple" - to be alone with God, without interpreters or "intermediaries."
"'Tis the gift to be free" - free of the trappings, rituals or rites that, all too often, become more important than the tenets of religion.
"'Tis the gift to come down" - from the pulpits and altars.
"where we ought to be" - endeavoring to find in our own hearts and minds what God wants us to be doing with our lives.
"And when we find ourselves in a place just right" - in our work, in our relationships with those we love, in a congregation that nurtures and supports us, we will truly be
"in the valley of love and delight."
"When true simplicity is gained" - when "comfort has [not] become [our] master" (Khalil Ghibran) - when our lives are built around our desire to do God's will.
"to bow" our heads and knees in prayer.
"and to bend" our will to God's.
"we will not be ashamed. To turn and to turn" as we turn our plants to the sunlight so that they will grow healthily on all sides.
"will be our delight, till by turning, turning, we come 'round right" with those we live and love,

"right" in the work we do,
"right" in the service we give to our communities.

Religious Education Committee Clerk Renee-Noelle Felice can be reached at rnfeline@netzero.net.

THE 40 FOR 40 CHALLENGE!

Dear PoHo Youth:

In 2001, Powell House turns 40! As part of our celebration, the Powell House Conference Center sent out a special fundraising card to the PoHo Youth only.

We're hoping the PoHo Kids take on the challenge to hold a bake sale or sell their crafts or collect cans, and raise $40 for PoHo - just one dollar for each of the very special forty years Powell House has been part of our lives.

Be sure to let us know that your $40 is part of the "40 for 40" challenge and we'll keep track of how much the PoHo Youth raise and let you all know at EarthSong 2001. Just send your contribution to Carolyn Heary at: Powell House, 524 Pitt Hall Rd, Old Chatham, NY, 12136-3410. Be sure to let her know it's part of the "40 for 40 Challenge."

Thank you so much for helping Powell House celebrate its 40th. And stick around - see what we have in store for the next forty years!

(If you didn't get the special edition 40 for 40 Challenge bookmark, let Chris and Mike [the PoHo Youth Directors] know - they have extras.)

"FRIENDS ARE ANGELS WHO LIFT US TO OUR FEET WHEN OUR WINGS HAVE TROUBLE REMEMBERING HOW TO FLY"

Dear Melanie-Claire,

I'm forwarding something Renee-Noelle sent me.

I'm going to give it to a young woman in our meeting who is starting up a youth group for our teenagers. I think maybe they could have a good discussion around it. Perhaps others could also use it as a topic for First Day school or youth group discussion with teenagers.

Another suggestion for the same age group is: A friend of mine led First Day school for teenagers for 17 years with the simple tactic of bringing the NY Times each week, and having them find Quaker topics for discussion. Some reasons why this would be a successful approach: You are letting the teens choose topics relevant to them; you are not separating the spiritual discussions from their world experiences; often the very simplest methods are the best. (Maybe you can think of more reasons.)

An idea shared by an FGC RE committee member: He likes to jam, so he just invites the kids to his house, "Bring your instruments and we'll jam." Simple refreshments and a friendly house were all it took to form a youth group.

Love, Florence

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd.

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged and went on. As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about 10 feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes. My heart went out to him. So I jogged over to him as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.

As I handed him his glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives."

He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!" There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books.

He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends. He said yes. We hung all weekend, and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him. Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said, "Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books every day!"

He just laughed and handed me half the books.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. When we were seniors, we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem.

He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship. Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak.

Graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than I had, and all the girls loved him. Boy, sometimes I was jealous. Today was one of those days.

I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So, I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!"

He looked at me with that look (the really grateful one) and smiled."Thanks," he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began: "Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach . . . but mostly your friends. I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story."

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. "Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable." I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile.

Not until that moment did I realize its depth.

FOCUS ON OUR CHILDREN

As usual, Rochester Friends Meeting Religious Education (RE) Committee has trouble finding teachers for the children's classes. RE was wondering how to get the Meeting Family together to discuss where each of us is at concerning the children. We say we love the children and want them among us, but how do we show the children our concern for them? Why is there a constant struggle to find teachers? Some folks feel the children are best taught by attending Worship and absorbing Quakerism, while others think classes to go along with Worship are helpful.

This last summer, the RE Committee sponsored two worship-sharing sessions that focused on how the Meeting cares for the children in our Family. We have recently undergone many changes within our Meeting. RE was asking Friends to come together to listen to each other's thoughts on how we, in a corporate effort, can best show our love and concern for our children. Two dates were chosen in an attempt to get as much input from as many as we could. We planned a potluck following each session. (If you feed them, they will come!)

Friends were given seven queries to ponder in preparation for the sessions:

1. In what ways, specifically, does the Meeting express its love and concern for our children?
2. In what ways am I inclined to share my Quaker journey with the children?
3. How do I see "religious education" taking place within this Family?
4. What changes would I make in the way we provide love/care for the children in this Family?
5. In what ways can I be involved in showing love/caring for our children?
6. Am I inclined to treat the children with the same respect that I show adults in this Family?
7. Am I aware that Intergenerational Sundays (first Sundays of each month) provide an opening for adults and children to form deeper friendships?

We were pleased that 25 attended the first session and 20 attended the second session. The facilitator at each session offered guidelines for Worship-Sharing. A different Query was chosen for each session. (The specific Queries used were #4, then #3.) There was rich and deep sharing.

Friends were attentive, supportive, and loving in their sharing. The diversity and experience within our Family are abundant and varied. It was good to listen to the concerns of one another. There was expression of great tenderness for the children. People also expressed feelings of uneasiness in spending time with the children in that they felt ill-prepared or did not "know enough" to teach the children.

There were specific expressions of concern along with general wishes that the children become more familiar with the Testimonies, Quaker history, spiritual music, the Bible, and other religions; that there be more opportunities for intergenerational activities, hearing each other's stories, providing a safe environment in a community of fellow travelers, experiential learning, storytelling, and helping the children make the connection between God and their everyday lives. The adults agreed that they not only wanted these things for our children, but they hunger for it for themselves, too.

The RE Committee came away spiritually overwhelmed, and yet refreshed in its charge to provide quality religious education for the children. For myself, I came away with a firm knowledge that there are a lot more people than there appear to be who share concern and love for our children. This made a great deal of difference for me. It gave me the renewed energy I needed to be able move forward on the RE Committee. I am truly grateful to all who took this journey. It was a supportive and nourishing exercise for our Meeting Family to have undertaken.

Donna Bisset (a member of the RE Committee)
Rochester Friends Meeting
21 February 2001

THE SPIRIT AND THE ARTS

Dear Friends:

A NYYM appointed committee has asked that Ernestine Buscemi, Miriam Swartz,and I (Robert Baldridge) organize the program for the upcoming Spring Gathering for FWCC Northeast Section of the Americas,which is being hosted by NYYM at SUNY New Paltz (State University of New York Campus about 75 miles northwest of NYC), on Saturday June 2, 2001.

We are hoping that people who read about the event will save the date and participate in the gathering. Volunteers are needed for this event. If we can answer any questions, let us know by contacting us.

We have a few questions for your region:

1. Will there be any representative meetings, quarterly or other events coming up where we could set up a table with information about this event?
2. Does your meeting have any youth groups that we would be able to contact such as a Young Circle of Friends or Teen group? We would like to contact them. If you have suggestions on how, let us know.
3. Are there any other committees that you suggest we can be in touch with? Any up-coming publications, newsletters, etc., we should contact in order to send out plenty of advance notice?

Below is the program - please feel free to pass it on to your e-mail list or add it to your Monthly Meeting's newsletter. We also have printed brochures if you are interested in seeing them.

Thanks. We will look forward to hearing from you.

In Friendship,

Robert Baldridge

HOUSATONIC MONTHLY MEETING FIRST DAY SCHOOL

I am writing from the Housatonic Monthly Meeting in New Milford, Connecticut. We are a small meeting for worship with 27 members. Our First Day School is also quite small, with four girls in the 4th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades and, depending on the week, three or four children ranging in age from two to four. Our Meetinghouse is a structure that dates back to colonial times, with little or no insulation between the two main sections, and we now have an adjoining small trailer that provides a small, rather cramped space for us to teach the children.

Our children in this meeting are quite precocious, and my greatest challenge is challenging them. I am a widow and the mother of young woman who was just married under the care of this meeting last June. I have the one daughter only and would have loved to have a couple more children, so for me this is wonderful. I get to have these children to teach each week. I can honestly say that I get as much out of First Day school as they do.

This year we are working several themes through our classes. The smallest children are exploring what God makes and what we make. Example, God makes grains, but we make bread. God makes butterflies and flowers, and we make flower gardens and arrangements.

The older girls are learning what it means to be a Quaker. We have a curriculum that was brought to us by another member from Yearly Meeting. We are reading about the lives of some famous and some not as famous early Quakers, with attention to their differences as well as the similarities, and now as the year progresses, we are exploring what it means to be a Quaker in our time and how Quakers of today live a Friends life.

The other theme, which we are working on all year long, is the concept that Friends in their origin did not make a big celebration of Christmas. It was instead a day like any other with equal love and appreciation of the Spirit. So I have asked the children to consider such concepts as "the gifts we get that don't come in packages" such as kindnesses or just a perfect moment, or a sudden realization or enlightenment. We are tying that in with the awareness that Xmas is supposed to be every day of the year if you are a Christian. The love and the gifts of that love are supposed to be there equally every day. In reaction to this, we have adopted families to be cared for all year long who are in need. Not just the typical food drive for the holidays. In this same vein, I am considering doing our play from Xmas sometime in the middle of the summer again.

Our First Day School is preparing to go to a Friends soup kitchen in New York City in the spring, and to the United Nations Friends office on another trip - all of this with the purpose of seeing how Friends live the message of responsible caring on a daily basis as they maintain a tradition of social action and activity.

Members of our Meeting are sharing their lives with the students as well, and it has been and continues to be a growth experience for our whole Meeting, which is as it should be. My philosophy is that when you stop learning and growing, you are most likely dead.

Not to end on a grim note of sarcasm. I hope this gets to you in time to be helpful for your publication. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you our very engrossing, little school and its program.

Sincerely yours,

Elisabeth (Betsy) LeRoi

WORKSHOP ROTATION METHOD

Two years ago the Purchase Meeting First Day School Committee decided to adopt the Workshop Rotation Method of teaching (known as WoRM). This kid-friendly, multimedia model relies on repetition and uses varied approaches. To quote from www.cstones.com,* [Go to footnote.] "Based on the size of your attendance, you determine the number of classes you need, and that's the number of workshops per Sunday. If you run the unit for four weeks, and you need four workshops, you invite four teachers, connecting each to one workshop. The teacher leads the same workshop all four weeks, each week teaching to a different class. The classes rotate through the workshops, one each week. Example: Noah and the Ark. You offer workshops in puppetry, arts and crafts, kinesthetics and mission. Over the four weeks, the children learn about Noah in all four workshops." Once the workshops are created and outlined on paper, they go into a curriculum notebook so the same series can be rerun by a different person three or four years

With the help of a resource person found through one of our mothers, we learned about How it Works. We had frequent meetings to organize our first year, using the Queries as our theme. It turned out that the mother who brought us the concept has a degree in curriculum writing, and she provided the framework and discipline to get us started. We began with the first and second Queries, on worship and prayer; the kick-off Sunday of the First Day school year featured an intergenerational event, labyrinth walking, brought by two women who do this professionally (so it was expensive but rewarding). A large labyrinth was laid out in the parking lot, and a smaller one in the community room, and there were individual finger labyrinths as well. Meeting for Worship was ended early, and adults and children walked the labyrinths meditatively, sometimes an older child carrying a younger one. Not everyone was in a meditative mood, but in general it worked well.

On the next six Sundays the children constructed their own seven-circuit labyrinth, created clay pots to realize God's presence in ordinary activities, practiced yoga to facilitate listening and feeling inside, played games to become aware of the power of the mind and then ponder the power of prayer, conducted a meeting for worship with a concern for business in order to decide how to spend some funds allocated by the Meeting, and participated in a Claremont dialogue. Each Sunday the children were encouraged to rephrase the relevant Query to make it more accessible.

Parents took an interest in what was happening, stayed to help and participate, and commented that they were looking forward to the next week. In the course of the year we took up rebirth/renewal/regeneration (planting a garden), based on the fifteenth Query; simplicity (repairing and offering for sale items that could be still usable), based on the fifth Query; nonviolence, based on the thirteenth; environment, based on the tenth; and compassion/outreach/service, based on the eleventh. There was time out in December to create and rehearse a Christmas play (children and adults do this together each year).

WoRM has provided a welcome change for the children, and the teachers are enthusiastic. Of course, we have had to make adjustments to our situation. We have enough kids for only two classes. The material has to be adjusted so as to be presented at somewhat different levels to the two groups. Busy people seldom have several Sundays in a row to commit, so we have to find others to help. WoRM assumes that the church has a paid staff person who plays an important spearheading and supervisory role, and we have to do without that. Organizers of series reported finishing their tour in a state of near burnout; they took weeks to recover enough to be able to help someone else. WoRM is basically for elementary-age children, so we still need to make provision for nursery care and high school-junior high. The two nursery school/kindergarten children don't fit well into any of these divisions, and we have not paid adequate attention to their needs. The curriculum notebook has not come to pass--people are just too busy. We were not able to identify a theme for our second year, so workshop creators/leaders are doing whatever appeals to them.

We have enjoyed the feeling of being revitalized, although maintaining the momentum is a challenge. I have often thought, If only we had more parents and kids! yet we are one of the larger meetings in our Quarter. I am grateful for the hard work committee members and teachers do, and also for the support given us by the Meeting as a whole.

*Other Web sites to check out are www.rotation.org/ and www.texoma.net/trinity/DOC3.html. [Back to text.]

Judith Inskeep
Purchase Meeting

SUMMIT MEETING--AND PENDLE HILL

Thanks for the request for submissions to The Net. I'm including Kathy Walz on this message, as she is the coclerk of Summit Meeting's RE committee. I'll be cycling off the committee in April (but still remaining active in some ways, I'm sure), so wanted to make sure that you had a live contact for SMM.

We've got a lot going on these days - just started a new curriculum called Quakers Making History, which was drawn up by one of our members, Ty Dewhurst. By all accounts, the kids really got into it this past week.

As a meeting, we are getting involved in AFSC's earthquake relief program. The kids are assembling kits to send to El Salvador victims, and the meeting is going to sponsor a frugal meal to help raise money to send to AFSC. We are always on the lookout for other interesting service projects, as the kids are starting to ask about these things.

Also, wanted to send you a heads-up about the Pendle Hill conference in early April about writing and using RE curricula. I know Philadelphia is probably a haul for you up in Ithaca, but thought you might like to know about it just in case. Here's the blurb:

Preparing the Way: Writing, Developing, and Using Quaker Curricula Cosponsored by the Friends General Conference Religious Education Committee With Marsha Holliday and Robin Wells, April 6-8 Looking for ways to engage children, youth, and adults in First Day School? Preparation requires a thoughtful, prayerful, playful approach to curriculum and activities. Through presentations, small- and large-group activities, games, journaling, and worship, we will reflect on the philosophy and theology behind Quaker curricula. Marsha Holliday will share with us how to evaluate, write, administer, and use curricula while Robin Wells will show us how to create games that support FDS curriculum. Come and experience the joy of preparing the way for First Day School. Marsha Holliday, a member of Langley Hill Friends Meeting, is currently sojourning with Friends in Paris, France. Marsha has taught in public, parochial and Friends schools and has served as a Religious Education professional for Baltimore Yearly Meeting and Friends General Conference. Recently she has pursued seminary studies in curriculum development and has written a published high school/adult curriculum, Silent Worship and Quaker Values: An Introduction. Robin Wells is the First Day School Coordinator for Asheville Friends Meeting (NC). Robin mixes fun, games and multigenerational activities in her approach to Quaker education and spiritual exploration. $205/double; $250/single

Hope this helps!

Take care,

Mia Kissil Hewitt
Coclerk, Religious Education
Summit Monthly Meeting, Chatham, NJ

THE PERSON ON THE BENCH AT SCARSDALE FRIENDS MEETING

Scarsdale Friends Meeting has four First Day school classes: pre-K; K-2; 3-5; and 6-7. Older youth are attending Meeting for Worship if they come. We have between two and six in each class, depending on the week, though the pre-K group has been known to go up to 10, I think. We also have a person called "Person on the Bench" who is there to catch kids who fall out of First Day school. Kids attend the first 15 minutes of Meeting for Worship, then go to classes for an hour, including the announcement period.

Our kids have become sufficiently numerous that we got a message in Meeting after the kids left one First Day that the speaker felt that he was part of the Silent Minority.

There are five of us rotating in the person-on-the-bench position. The person of the day sits in the corridor outside the First Day school classes. I have sent out an e-mail to all of the other volunteers explaining how we see the role of the Person on the Bench. The text of the e-mail is as follows:

Our normal expectation with dealing with an upset child is to find out why the child is upset and try to respond spontaneously to that. Does the child need his or her parent? Does the child need to engage in gross motor activity? Would the child benefit from a conversation or having a story read to him or her? Hopefully, we would be able to respond to the upset child in a helpful way, which will make the child feel good about the Meeting. Maybe we will teach the child something about religion, and that would be great, but not strictly necessary.

If there is no upset child, we could offer to help the pre-school class by taking kids to the bathroom or bringing cups, plates and napkins to the classroom.

Observations: Experience has shown that a person on the bench is not needed every First Day. However, various children have needed such a person at various times. Sometimes we have read stories. Sometimes we go outside. Once a child shoveled the parking lot with the person on the bench. Another time we did raking. Also, the presence of the person on the bench provides an outlet to the First Day school teachers. They can ask an unruly child whether that child would like to go out and be with the person on the bench. Often that is all that is needed, just to think about the alternatives, to make the child decide to cooperate.

Anne Barschall,
Scarsdale Friends Meeting

 

POTATOES, EGGS, AND COFFEE BEANS Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn't know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed. Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning, he asked. "Daughter, what do you see?" "Potatoes, eggs, and coffee," she hastily replied. "Look closer," he said, "and touch the potatoes." She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face. "Father, what does this mean?" she asked. He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs, and the coffee beans had each faced the same adversity--the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak. The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new. "Which are you?" he asked his daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean? " In life, things happen around us, to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us. Which one are you? Author Unknown

ON YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE TIME OF MEETING

Back in the early eighties I served as student liaison between Morningside Meeting and Columbia University, from which Morningside rented space. In this capacity, I received a list of approximately 45 students who, as part of their registration process, had told Columbia that they were Quakers. Of course, we saw precious few of those students at Meeting.

As a result, I called all of them to make sure that they knew that we had a Meeting on campus and to invite them to attend. The almost universal response from these students was that 11 A.M. was too early on First Day morning for them to be able to get to Meeting. I found that time difficult for me as well, even though I lived on campus, only one block away from the Meeting, and a short block at that. However, I had recently converted to Quakerism and my enthusiasm got me there, which was not the case with so many of these other students. Since that time, I have read reports coming from scientists doing sleep research. This research shows that young people, i.e. teenagers through about age 30, are unable to get to sleep before 11:00 P.M. However, despite their bodies not letting them get to sleep earlier, they still need 9 or more hours of sleep every night at those ages. Society does not allow people to sleep until 8 or 9 every morning. Many of these young people are compelled to get up at 5, 6, and 7 to get to work and school. As a result, they are chronically sleep deprived. This causes the late sleeping patterns that are so common on weekends with these age groups. In other words, they really can't get up on First Day morning. Thay're not just lazy. They really need the sleep.

Friends frequently lament that we have so few members and attenders in this age group, i.e., teenagers and young adults. I would submit that if we are really serious about attracting these people, we must provide worship opportunities at other times, such as afternoons on weekends, weekday evenings, or possibly even lunch hours during the week. This is particularly true for Meetings that are near university campuses.

Morningside itself had a period of time where they were compelled to switch their Meeting for Worship to noon rather than 11. This did result in larger attendance, but it was inconvenient for the core members of Meeting, so they changed back as soon as they could. Generally, First Day morning is most convenient for families with children and for older F(f)riends whose sleep schedules have changed. But, if we insist on being convenient only for ourselves, we should not be surprised if we do not attract people who are different from us.

Anne Barschall

CURRICULUM FOR SARAH AND ABRAHAM WORKSHOP SERIES
October 15, 22, and 29, 2000

(About 10 days ahead, I sent postcards to grades 1-6 with an outline of activities for the three Sundays. On all three days we began with singing and went into Meeting for Worship at about 11:20.)

Oct. 15: Both groups were together in the old Meeting room. After a couple of songs, Deborah Wood led us in singing "Father Abraham," with motions. Then I invited the children to sit in the tent I had set up in the room the day before, while I recited a dramatic monologue of Sarah's life (based on Daughters of Zion by Elizabeth Watson). I wore a costume made from two sheets (modeled on illustrations in The Toddler's Bible) and had a map posted, along with a quote from Genesis, "I will make your descendants more numerous than the stars." Then Eileen McGee led a name game. My idea was that it would be a "change of name" game, in which the children would choose a name they would like to have if they didn't have their own (since Sarah's name was changed from Sarai, and a change of name meant a change of destiny). It turned out, however, that they didn't all know each other's names, so Eileen had them use their real names and that worked well.

Oct. 22: After singing, the lower elementary section went into the old kitchen with Joan Oltman and fashioned a couple of lambs out of bread dough that had been prepared in advance (based on the lion-and-lamb bread presented in Making Things). I had asked Joan to facilitate a discussion of some aspect of Sarah's story (suggestions were downloaded from the Internet); however, the subject of the sacrifice of Isaac, which I had not felt particularly empowered to present, came up, and Joan reported that they had a good discussion on that topic. On the way into Meeting, Joan put the bread in the oven, and we ate it at coffee hour.

Meanwhile I led the upper elementary group in a discussion, starting with asking the children what they remembered of the story from the previous week or knew from other sources. I had in mind emphasizing God's promise to Abraham and Sarah, the concept of proceeding by faith, God's ability to use us according to our gifts, and Elizabeth Watson's presentation of the Promised Land as a place where we all care for each other. I wasn't really successful in keeping things focused, but some discussing was accomplished. Then we made banners, spray-gluing pre-cut stars, tents, camels, and letters spelling out "God's Promise" onto rectangles of felt. There was a certain amount of departure from the goal I presented, but a couple of attractive banners got made.

Oct. 29: The upper elementary group made lamb bread with Deborah Wood, which again augmented coffee hour. At this point I don't remember what she told me about how the discussion went.

Lower elementary: Since United Nations Day was October 24, I brought a UN flag and asked the children to state what they knew about that organization. Then we talked about human rights, particularly children's rights. I described the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the role of the UN generally. Then we made a mural on brown butcher paper, gluing onto it cutouts of children's and women's faces from many different countries. It looked appealing, I thought.

In reserve, in case an activity went too quickly, I had Sarah paper-doll chains ready to cut, prepared by Deborah Wood. We didn't need to use them.

I did the preparation over about two and a half months, a few steps at a time. I read the Sarah and Abraham story in several different versions of the Bible, browsed the Workshop Rotation Method material on the Internet, went to A. I. Friedman's to buy the craft supplies (what a pleasant surprise to find they had precut felt letters!), found appropriate star, tent, and camel illustrations and traced them on felt and cut them out, practiced making the lamb bread, edited and memorized the monologue and experimented with costume, searched literature coming into the Quaker UN Office for faces for the mural, and thought about whom I could ask to help me on the three Sundays, trying to involve Meeting people who are not parents of FDS children.

United Nations Discussion

(I hung the flag on the nearer bench)

Do you know this flag?

Do you know what the UN does?

• Tries to keep wars from starting, and stop them when they do start.
• Tries to help people and countries that need help (illness, not enough food).
• Tries to get governmentt reps to talk together about what the world needs and how to make it happen.

This involves making agreements.

Some agreements are about human rights.

What are human rights? Rights that (should) belong to every person; they're about our having what we need to be persons, things you can touch like food and a place to live, and things you can't touch but are real anyway, like safety and respect.

One agreement is about children; it's called the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

What rights do children have?

Judith Inskeep

WILTON MEETING FIRST DAY SCHOOL

Since February, one of our group leaders has stopped attending Meeting. The problem there is just that there has been a lack of communication, and the Friends who fill in have to figure out what to do at the last minute, and there have been times that there is no activity for that group. The lesson is that communication is key to a smooth-running First Day school!

Another group leader found herself overcommitted and has been incredibly stressed at the thought of keeping up with her group. Also a case in which communication could help. . . . I wonder if this is a time of year that First Day schools typically have problems keeping up. Other than that, we have had a productive year at Wilton Meeting trying to create a way to answer various needs of our community.

Our Ministry and Counsel was concerned that the Wilton Meeting kids were not getting the skills together that they need in order to appreciate Quaker worship. On top of that, group leaders were hesitant to commit to teaching four lessons every month. In order to try to answer these concerns, we came up with the following schedule, which has been working out pretty well for everyone:

• First First Days are spent with the children doing a baking project either making desert for the homeless shelter our Meeting works with or providing hospitality for the Meeting after worship. This gives them service to do on a consistent basis. The cooking is led by someone other than the usual group leaders, giving the leaders an opportunity to worship.
• Second and Third First Days everyone worships together for 20 minutes. When the latecomers are seated, the First Day school people leave and form a circle in their area. We remain silent for 5 to 15 minutes, depending on tolerance levels that day. We go around the circle, say our names, sometimes do a name game for fun, like say your name backwards or say the name of the person on your left. We read a query; then the groups break into age- related "classes" and do some activities related to the curriculum their group leader has chosen. One of the group leaders has for the last two years simply read the Bible to her group - the ages are 7 to 12 in that group. She brings in a quiet activity for them that comes from a school-supply catalog. She reads while the kids make a little something. It has worked out really well, and she is inspired! The kids have absorbed an amazing amount from this simple way of doing Bible study. At the end of their time they have a short discussion about the story they heard.
• Fourth First Days, we have a First Day school worship. The adults in our Meeting find that the children distract them when they are in worship, so we meet in our space and worship in a more child-friendly environment. Babies can walk around, play with very quiet toys; the older kids sit, lie, kneel, whatever, on the floor, and we worship together. Children need to bring an adult presence with them, not necessarily their parent(s). If the kids get restless, we have a gentle activity for them such as "block worship" (I learned this at Yearly Meeting; it is always a hit), yoga, songs, coloring, some group- or community-related thing; then we sit again for a few minutes and afterwards we have afterthoughts, announcements, queries just like the taller people do.

The basic idea for our First Day school worship comes from the book Opening the Doors to Quaker Worship, from the Religious Ed Committee of FGC. When there is a fifth First Day in the month (this happens pretty much on a Quarterly basis), the entire community worships together, kids and all. A couple of years ago, one of the First Day school clerks bought curricula and compiled them in age-related notebooks. She put each one in a plastic sleeve. This is a great resource if one is stuck for an idea or substituting for another group leader. All anyone has to do is pull a booklet from the notebook, read through it, and go present it to the group. At this time we do not have a yearly curriculum, such as the Unitarians do, for example, that describes what will be covered each year. Part of the reason for that is we have a small number of adults to children, and so our groups are pretty wide in age span. We considered doing something like this, and may revisit the idea in the future, but at this time, the potential for repetition and boring the kids to death is very high!

Our high school-age Friends have dropped out of their involvement with Wilton Meeting for the most part. We may see one or two occasionally, but for the most part, they seem to feel that they have so much to do in the other parts of their lives that attending Meeting is too much to ask, let alone expecting them to join in an activity. We have a Friend who is trying to get something together for them, if only to give them a sense of being important to our community.

At Christmas, we have a candle-lighting worship with our entire community, candles on a table facing, and each Friend lighting one and speaking if they are called. The youngest of our members/attenders lights the first candle. At Easter, we plant pansies in peat pots and place them on the meetingroom window sills. Each attender/member is invited to take a pansy home. Each of these activities are "sponsored" by FDS. We also have had a community garden put out at Earth Day--each of us brings anything we like to plant in our garden, and that is tended throughout the spring and summer by our kids and their families.

Usually in the summer we have no First Day school, but we try to have adult-friendly presences to do a project, game, etc., or just to watch the kids so that parents can worship.

Our group leaders and committee are pretty much made up of parents. We have asked the larger community to be involved with the FDS, but have had little actual help from them. They seem to be intimidated by the thought of being left alone with a group of children! Our high burnout has to do with the very fact of our being parents and having to keep up our families seven days a week. We have had trouble actually following curricula at times because not everyone attends on a regular basis, and sometimes leaders find they are faced with a different group each week.

Thanks for asking!

Martha
Wilton Meeting

TEACHERVISION.COM
THE LEARNING NETWORK TEACHER CHANNEL

Dear FDS Teachers:

I love surfing the Web and just today noticed a link to this site. So I clicked on it and found a veritable plethora of ideas for curricula and lessons. There are all kinds of reference materials and bibliographies and newsletters and quizzes and just Wow!

For instance the very first box [at the time this was written] lists these links:

• Happy Spring!
• Check out the lesson plans and resources about these important events and people.
• Spring
• Youth Art Month
• Women's History
• Music in Our Schools

So I clicked on "Spring" and found Art lessons, readings from Rachel Carson, poetry by Christopher Marlowe from Reading Smarter, Science projects including the bug buffet (I didn't explore that one!), reference materials for the Vernal Equinox, Religious Holidays, Weather Terms, and lots more.

Women's History turned up:

• See the Suffragette Portait Gallery and the March calendar.
• Art
• Altars to Greek Goddesses
• One Great American Lady (The Statue of Liberty)
• Modern Day Mona Lisa
• Paper Quilts
• Caryatids
• Educational Technology
• Women and the Vote
• Suffrage Alive!
• Suffrage around the World
• Language Arts
• The Keeping Quilt
• The Declaration of Independence and Your Own Rights
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• An Abolitionist Play
• The Awakening

The next paragraph after Spring featured:

School Safety:

The issue of school safety is foremost on teachers' minds. Use outstanding lessons on conflict resolution provided in partnership with the Educators for Social Responsibility and find Web resources for all aspects of school safety.

So this was a fascinating and useful find that I thought I'd better pass along to you.

Melanie-Claire Mallison
Ithaca Monthly Meeting

UPCOMING POWELL HOUSE WEEKENDS