Quaker Resources: Families, Youth, and First Day School

Contents

Children and Youth Field Secretary

  • Children and Youth Field Secretary page
  • NYYM's Children and Youth Field Secretary works with meetings, yearly meeting committees, and other NYYM youth-oriented programs to strengthen and enrich youth programming in NYYM and help our meetings become more multigenerational.

NYYM Programs for Families and Youth

First Day School

Teacher Aids

First Day School Curricula

Friends General Conference

  • Faith & Play™: fgcquaker.org/faithandplay/
  • A joint project of FGC and PhYM, Faith & Play™ is a Montessori-inspired resource that helps children find words and images for expressing their experiences of holy mystery and wonder in their lives.
  • Godly Play® is an experiential and open-ended approach to teaching the Bible to children.
  • Both programs involve fairly intensive training and some costs.

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting resources

Suggested Children's Literature

Simplicity
Roxaboxen
Simple Gifts
Thee Hannah!
Augustus and His Smile
Too Many Toys!

Integrity
The Adventures of Obadiah
The Okay Book
Lives that Speak, by FGC RE Committee
Stargirl (middle school)
The William Penn Book
The Big Orange Splot
Old Turtle and the Broken Tooth

Equality
Rachel and Obadiah
The Other Side
Virgie Goes to School With Us Boys
Moses
Martin's Big Words

Peace
The Knight and the Dragon
The War
Abiyoyo
The Peace Book
When Sophie Gets Angry ...

Community
Swimmy
Nora's Ark
Yard Sale!
If the World Were a Village
Stone Soup (by Muth)
Frederick

Stewardship
Thy Friend Obadiah
Miss Rumphius
The Lorax
Old Turtle
The Gardener



The Testimonies

Suggested Ways to Explore Friends Testimonies in a Meeting Community

These ideas are for older elementary and middle school-age youth, but could also be done with younger kids.  Again, just a start to the ways we might explore how we let our lives speak.

Peace

  • create experiences with conflict resolution programming to experience peace
  • explore "what does peace look like?" -- images, songs, being together, being in nature
  • compare historical peacemaking events with present day, local, and personal peacemaking efforts
  • visit with and help create a program with your Meeting's Peace & Justice or Peace & Social Concerns committee

Equality

  • hold regular youth meetings for business around a concern or leading they carry, and be sure you can facilitate any decisions they make coming to fruition
  • expand on understanding of other religions by visiting other places of worship, or gather with young people from other denominations – play games, have fun together, learn more about one another, share experiences of faith and practicing it

Simplicity

  • invite an older Friend to talk about their experiences with this testimony while growing up as a Quaker
  • make paper, plain bonnets and hats and discuss how it feels to wear them, what it meant to Friends to dress simply and use plain speech; explore how plain dress and speech are relevant in today's culture
  • during the holidays, explore concepts of want vs. need, and thankfulness

Integrity

  • stories and discussion about decisions and actions that bring us closer to the Spirit
  • PYM curriculum "Shaking Out the Truth" covers how to hold threshing sessions, meeting for business and clearness committees

Community/Service/Stewardship

  • engage in service work together, build ongoing relationships within larger community; reflect on service work through discussion and journaling
  • do service work for the meeting community (host a coffee hour, plant spring bulbs)
  • give kids voice and input in choosing service projects that develop their passions
  • work with your Meeting's committees which attend to the community, the property, outreach and service projects

Parenting and Family links

Books and Libraries

  • Quakerbooks—search for resources on youth and First Day School

Videos by the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative (QREC)

These links take you to Vimeo for viewing:

Quaker Organizations Concerned with Youth