Labyrinths

Session 1: On the Threshold provides information and links to help you make or obtain a floor labyrinth for use with Creating Home. In the Session 1 Resources section, see “Leader Resources” for instructions and helpful web links for making a labyrinth. Web links under “Find Out More,” will take you to information about labyrinths in different parts of the world, their history, and their contemporary spiritual uses.

Background Reading

The Gift of Faith: Tending the Spiritual Lives of Children by Jeanne Harrison Nieuwejaar, 2nd edition (Boston: Skinner House Books, 2003) offers reflection on the role participation in religious community can play in young children’s spiritual, faith, and overall development.

This book showcases some model classrooms and provides strategies for crafting an educational setting that teaches young school age children respect for differences, inclusion, and caring behavior: Starting Small: Teaching Tolerance in Preschool and the Early Grades by the Teaching Tolerance Project (Montgomery, Alabama: Southern Poverty Law Center, 1997).

Find a broad and compelling discussion of inclusion in children’s learning environments, along with suggestions for adaptation to embrace some cognitive, mobility, and other limitations children may have, in Welcoming Children with Special Needs: A Guidebook for Faith Communities by Sally Patton (Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association).

Nurturing Children and Youth: A Developmental Guidebook by Tracey L. Hurd (Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association, 2005) presents a helpful discussion of developmental characteristics children are likely to have at different ages. The book offers strategies educators can use to design and lead age-appropriate, effective learning experiences grounded in developmental knowledge.

Hurd’s book belongs to the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Lifespan Faith Development Toolkit Series for religious educators, which also includes Stories in Faith: Exploring Our Unitarian Universalist Principles and Sources Through Wisdom Tales by Gail Forsyth-Vail and When Youth Lead: A Guide to Intergenerational Social Justice Ministry, plus 101 Youth Projects by Jill M. Schwendeman, both published in 2007 by the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.