Breakfast Chats: Parent feedback meetings

Our Director of Religious Education Advisory Council is in the process of beginning to collect feedback from adults with kids and youth in the Religious Education program.  We will be holding "Breakfast Chats" before church on Sundays throughout January and February (see the schedule below).  Each Sunday's Breakfast Chat will be facilitated by a member of the DRE Advisory Council and will gather feedback from a different class group.  One week we will host adults with children in the nursery, one week for adults of children in our preschool and kindergarten class, etc. for each of our five Sunday morning groups.  Adults with children in more than one class can choose whichever meeting works best with their schedule or attend multiple meetings.

These meetings are for the adults who bring children and youth to church, be they parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles or just family friends. Y'all are welcome!

The schedule will be as follows (all meetings will be 9:45 am to 10:45 am Sunday mornings and will meet in the downstairs RE classrooms):

Jan. 4: Adults of youth
Jan. 11: Adults of Nursery children
Jan. 25: Adults of children in the Spirit Play class
Feb. 8: Adults of children in the Explorers class (1st-6th)
Feb. 22: Adults of children in the Sprouts class (PK-K)

Questions will include some variation on the following:

• What are the strengths of our RE program?
• When do you and your child(ren) feel most engaged in our church?
• What are your hopes and goals for RE for you and for your child(ren)?
• What else/more would you like us to be doing in our RE program?

Please RSVP to Becky so that we know how much food to make and what the appropriate childcare needs will be.  If you have feedback to share but cannot attend the meetings, please contact Becky or any member of the DRE Advisory Council (Laura Laing, Rebecca Wald or Paula Franklin). 

We look forward to your feedback!  See you there!

Thank You for Your Generosity!

We are pleased to report that we raised $574.60 during the offering at the early Christmas Eve service this year. Half of this money will go towards First Unitarian's ongoing cooking project for Our Daily Bread.  The other half will benefit the Heifer project.  We raised enough money to buy a goat, a sheep and two flocks of chicks for a family who needs them!

If you would like to contribute to either or both of these projects but didn't get the chance on Christmas Eve, you can give by doing the following:

• First Unitarian Church's Our Daily Bread Cooking Project: send a check to the church at 1 W. Hamilton St., Baltimore MD 21201, with "Our Daily Bread Project" in the memo line.

• Heifer Project: Visit heifer.org to choose a gift from their online catalog.

Thank you!

Christmas Pageant Video

Thank you to everyone who participated in making this year's early Christmas Eve service a treasured event for the whole community.  Nearly one hundred people attended this service, recently added to First Unitarian's Christmas Eve repertoire just three years ago.  The star of this year's worship service was our Christmas Pageant.  To everyone who helped make it happen, from our young actors, to our musicians, to parent volunteers who made costumes, props and sets, many thanks!

Below is our sole performance of "The Friendly Beasts," by Rebecca Wald.  To download the video, visit Vimeo.

Christmas Pageant 2008 from Becky Brooks on Vimeo.

Happy New Year!

No RE or Childcare this Sunday, Dec. 28

Be advised that there will be no Religious Education classes or childcare this Sunday, Dec. 28.  

Children are welcome to join the adults in the worship service, which will be a hymn sing.  Books, coloring pages and pipe cleaners to play with are also available in the children's corner of the sanctuary.

Please join us again for an all-ages activity next Sunday, January 4.  Regular RE classes will resume Jan. 11.  

Happy New Year!

Special Events, Dec. 7

December is upon us, let the craziness ensue!

Our schedule this Sunday is packed with activity for the children and youth of First Unitarian:

9:45 - 10:45 am (downstairs classrooms)

Christmas Pageant Rehearsals; donuts for kids who arrive on time!

11 am - 12:30 pm (education wing)

Worship together in the sanctuary, then RE classes

• This Sunday the Explorers class will welcome a guest speaker from the Maryland Food Bank, Shanna Yetman. Please remember to bring canned food donations to benefit our hungry neighbors and friends.  The Explorers have created a collection box to be found on the portico before church and in the social hall during coffee hour. 

• Other classes will meet as usual.

12:45 - 1:45 pm (youth room)

Youth Adult Committee (YAC) Meeting; lunch provided!

12:45 - 1:45 pm

InFESTers Winterfest rehearsals (peace chapel); lunch provided!

Also after the service this Sunday, don't forget to stop by the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall to do some Holiday Shopping at our annual Holiday Bazaar!

See y'all on Sunday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

No Religious Education classes for preschool through 6th grades will be offered this Sunday, Nov. 30.  After our usual Time for All Ages at 11:00 am in the sanctuary, supervised childcare will be offered in the downstairs classrooms.  We'll have board games, books and art supplies available.  

Our youth group will meet as usual and the nursery will be open and staffed to care for infants and toddlers.

Happy Thanksgiving wishes to one and all!  

Fire Drill on Sunday, Nov. 16

In order to better prepare teachers and kids for what to do in case of emergency, we will hold a fire drill midway through class on Sunday for each of the RE classes (except the nursery).  

Teachers will wait for my signal, at which point classes will line up and exit through the nearest (front) door. Teachers and assistants (and advisors, in the case of the youth group) will lead the children and youth out of the church, and down the block to the corner of Franklin and Cathedral streets, in front of the Mount Vernon Hotel. In the case of an actual emergency, this corner is the meeting point for parents to reunite with their children, including infants and toddlers. During Sunday's drill parents will not be meeting us. Rather, once all the kids are accounted for, we will return to church to continue classes.

Unless you'll be teaching on Sunday, you needn't participate in the fire drill, but I wanted to keep families in the loop about our plans.  If appropriate, you may wish to use this opportunity to talk with your family at home about emergency preparedness.  

There are many excellent resources online:

• In addition to Liberty Mutual's interactive website on fire safety here, you can also find downloadable instructions for creating your family's own fire escape plan, a Fire Fighter coloring book and more.

• In an emergency, it may be helpful to have clear and up to date medical information for your entire family. Download a family medical information form here.

• See the American Red Cross website for what to include in an evacuation plan and how to prepare an emergency kit.

If you know of other resources that families might find useful, please let us know by leaving a comment!