children

Childrens Program

Our Religious Education program for Children and Youth follows a Faith Development model that strongly encourages and supports intergenerational participation. The congregation does not just have educational programs; the church is an educational program.  Our comprehensive program reflects the value we place on community and the idea that faith development is a shared journey.

  • Children and youth join us in the sanctuary every week for the first 15 minutes or so, and then go to Religious Education classes after a Conversation with the Children and Youth
  • Our children participate in some worship services, and the teen group leads one service each year
  • They assist in social action projects
  • They study and explore what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist in a world of many religions and philosophies
  • Youth discuss socially and philosophically relevant topics and have additional community-building and leadership opportunities
  • High school youth serve on our Board and Committees

Our program is organized around several age-appropriate curriculums:

Wee Ones (ages 2-4)

We have a new class for our littlest learners.  Using age-appropriate storybooks, projects, and activities; they will experience church as a place to make, and be with, friends. 

 Creating Home (K-2nd Grade)

This UUA curriculum helps children develop a sense of home that is grounded in faith. Together they will ask questions about the purpose of having a home and the functions a home serves, for humans and for animals. The program introduces the concept of a faith home - the congregation - which shares some characteristics with a family home.

 Faithful Journeys (3rd-5th Grades)

Participants embark on a pilgrimage of faith, exploring how Unitarian Universalism translates into life choices and everyday actions. In each session, they hear examples of Unitarian Universalist faith in action.  Sessions are structured around the Unitarian Universalist Principles. 

 
sUUper plays (Youth) September - January

By reading and discussing one selection from sUUper plays each week, each youth is able to examine his/her belief system and how it influences real life decisions and actions.

 
Compass Points (Youth) February - May

Compass Points is the Sunday morning component of our Coming of Age program - a UU program intended to help youth discern for themselves what it means to be Unitarian Universalist, individually and as part of the larger faith community. It involves individual faith discernment, working with a mentor and a retreat.  To wrap-up their work, the youth will present a worship service.

 

Our Whole Lives (OWL):

This year Thoreau offers the 8-week Our Whole Lives class outside of RE time for children in grades 4 and 5.  Children in Grades K-2 have three weeks of sexuality education from the Haunting House curriculum during class.   Youth are invited to join other Houston Cluster youth at Emerson UU for Our Whole Lives Grades 7-9.

Please contact our Director of Faith Development, Patti Withers, at dfd@tuuc.org  if you have questions or would like more information.

Heres what some of our children and youth have said about why they come to TUUC:

  • "I get spirituality here."
  • "I can be more myself here."
  • "The environment is more comfortable than school."
  • "I can speak my mind without being looked at as being weird."
  • "A lot of the people here are my best friends."
  • "Even though I may not know you as well as my friends,I can tell you things that I cannot tell my friends."
  • "This is an opportunity for spirited intellectual discussions."
  • "There is a diversity of personalities here -- I like the diversity."
  • "I come to hang out."
  • "I come for the check-in."
  • "I enjoy being with you, hearing about your lives, and then going away."
  • "This is a place to come back to."
  • "People are nice and friendly."
  • "This is a place to be with friends."