At Holy Redeemer, we value our children not just as the church of tomorrow, but today. That means we know they can experience the depths of God through the sacraments and worship. They can become disciples of Jesus as they are formed by the church year and spiritual disciplines. 

Sunday mornings (from September until June) during the 10am service, we offer Sunday School for ages preschool through 8th grade.

Children gather in the sanctuary and are dismissed by Father Ken after he blesses them.

A fully-equipped nursery with childcare is available downstairs for ages 0-3.

Church Year 

The church year is an important part of what your child will be learning.

Godly Play 

The littles and elementary kids enter into a practice called Godly Play. The Godly Play room is like entering a library of the stories and practices of the people of God. There they can learn the vocabulary of Christianity so they can put words to their wonder and relationship with God. They can find the edges of their existential limits and explore them with the human God. Each week the kids will hear and watch the storyteller play with the story for the week. Then the class wonders together at the story. After the story, the children choose how to respond and think about the story. There is a lot in the room to interact with. There is art to do, art to look at, and most importantly the other stories to interact with. The children are invited to take the materials for any story out and retell it, playing I Wonder... with the pieces. Each week there will be a picture to help prompt your kids to retell the story to you. The picture may be of the materials used to tell the story, a picture of the lesson being told, or even an Icon the church has used from ancient times to think about the story. Take this time to just listen to your child. They may have a lot to say or just a little. Let them relive their experiences and feelings and hear what they are like. You don’t need to correct them or make sure they get it right, just wonder together with them about the story. There will be a list of “I wonder...” questions that you can discuss together. Remember, there are many right answers! Be open to what these presentations can mean to you and your child. God will teach you new meanings every day. You could conclude by sitting quietly for a moment and then saying “Amen.”

Littles  

Vision: To create a safe place where children learn more about God and how deeply loved they are by God, giving them an opportunity to respond and explore their faith in a playful, loving, creative, and imaginative way.

Curriculum: Godly Play or Young Children & Worship These curriculums are very similar and use a Montessori-type approach to lessons. Each story is a few minutes long and uses more natural materials that captivate children’s imaginations calmly and engagingly full of wonder and learning through play. The stories follow the church calendar and are usually synced up with one of the scriptures read in the sanctuary that day. 

Typical Schedule: 

1. Father Ken dismisses the children The teacher then takes a head count of the kids, and everyone walks over to the Parish House together. Kids are instructed to stay behind the Cross. 

 2. “Story-Telling Room” The Littles class goes upstairs to the “Story-Telling Room” to the far right, where they find a seat on a rug in front of the storyteller. 

3. “Be Still and Know” song This is a calming, short song with some sign language to ready our bodies and minds for the story. 

4. Listen to the Story The Storyteller tells the short story on the floor in front of the children, using specific story-telling materials. The story usually syncs up with one of the scriptures read in the sanctuary that day. The Door Person is the person who assists the storyteller with classroom management and any other help needed during the story or after. 

5. “Wonder Time” We then take a minute to wonder and reflect on the story together with several “wondering” questions provided by the storyteller. 

6. “Art & Reflections Room” Kids and teachers transfer over to the “Art & Reflections” room next door, where there is either a specific craft tied to the lesson or children are invited to use the various art materials to respond to the lesson or whatever is on their hearts that day. Kids also have the option to play with that day’s or a previous Sunday’s story materials if desired. 

7. Feast After clean-up, the teacher says a prayer, and we have our “Feast” together: a light snack and water. This is a nice time for the kids and teachers to have fun getting to know each other and talk about their interests. 

8. Wrapping Up Kids clean up, line up at the door, and teachers make another head count and lead children back to the sanctuary around 11:15. 

Middle School

Mini Revolutions is an intergenerational, monthly, digital curriculum based on the Revised Common Lectionary. Each week, the curriculum focuses on one scripture from the weekly readings we hear in church and provides discussion questions to help the group enter into the season’s story. They also adapt the content for youth ministry when the activities are catered more to the younger age groups. Each section of Mini Revolutions is simple and requires just a little prep to have a meaningful experience that generally follows the pattern below: 

• Scripture: One of the week’s readings that the rest of the components are based on. 
• Questions: Imagining and wondering open-ended questions that connect more deeply with the scripture. Middle School 
• Activity: A fun mix of activities that help participants think creatively about the scripture through building and design, earth care, social justice, self-care and compassion, social/ emotional learning, science, technology, and art.

The structure of Mini Revolutions’ curriculum allows the leader to use as little or as much of the content provided allowing the group’s dynamic week-to-week to be more flexible to meet the diverse needs within our class. Some weeks are more active than others with the intent to focus on a multi-sensory approach to touch on our youths’ strengths and abilities in a safe, loving, and accepting environment. Activities so far have included making stress fidgets, guessing games limited to using one sense to guess an object/phrase, puzzles, puppet shows, acting out a story, coloring, naming games (ex: topic-specific items that start with a letter in the alphabet), deeper discussions, etc. Our goal is to have a main idea from the lesson, talk through how it impacts us personally, and end with praying over the group to open ourselves to how we experience God and His Love as we love our neighbor and practice self-care. If your child cannot express a main idea from our lesson each week, please let us know so we can improve and grow in how we reach each child individually to meet their learning needs. BEDTIME STORIES

Sydney Sloth 

Sydney Sloth’s slow Bible storytelling is perfect for bedtime. Calm anxiety and pray a bible story. Stories coincide with the readings from the Revised Common Lectionary, so they can be used to prepare for Sunday or to reflect on what you heard in church the previous week. Close your eyes and settle in. Use your imagination to enter into the story and make it prayer. Don’t be afraid to fall asleep while you pray the story. There is no better way to fall asleep than while talking with God. The podcast consistently connects to the readings we hear in church before leaving for Sunday School. So it is a way to connect to the church experience as a whole family. The show can be found on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Find our Sunday School supplement podcast here.

https://open.spotify.com/show/ 4aW1vX5rVKWujEHqO8b4cW?si= i8EKg08rT2a3-C7Jj5g3aA

Family Discipleship Practices

Each week we will offer a spiritual discipline that your family can experiment with. Our goal is to create a toolbox of practices that each member of your family can reach into to grow closer to God and navigate life as an apprentice of our brother Jesus.

• A wide variety of practices helps to experience the life of Christ without creating drudgery and obligation. Rather it provides an adventure into the boundless riches of Christ.

• You can collect the take-home cards to build your own library of practices or look back at past practices on our Instagram profile.