Children at Langley Hill Meeting

Children are an important part of the Langley Hill community. In addition to welcoming them at our Meeting for Worship on First Day (Sunday), we also offer a comprehensive Religious Education program for children from birth through high school. For those families attending Meeting for Worship for the first time, we suggest that parents talk with their children in advance to help them understand, as best they can, the nature of these gatherings so that they can be as comfortable and respectful as possible during Meeting.

Langley Hill’s Religious Education Program

The program’s foremost aim is to teach students that there is that of God within themselves and in all other beings and to help them realize that all of their actions can proceed from this knowledge. The purpose of the Religious Education program is to help nurture this understanding in partnership with families and the larger Quaker community.

The Langley Hill Religious Education Program Goals are to:

• Create a welcoming, fun and stimulating learning environment where all styles and abilities are respected and contributions honored
• Teach children to listen for, discern and give expression to the Inner Light
• Foster a sense of community among all students and of fellowship with the broader Langley Hill community
• Teach children Quaker beliefs and practices and how they fit into the larger Judeo-Christian tradition
• Provide opportunities to live out Quaker Testimonies (peace, equality, simplicity, integrity, community, etc.)
• Help children to embrace diversity of all kinds

The Langley Hill Religious Education Program Teaches Knowledge and Skills, including:

• Quaker history
• Quaker testimonies
• Ability to have a positive impact on the world
• Connecting to and understanding the role of the Divine in our lives
• Bible: major stories, how it was developed and how it is viewed and understood by Quakers
• Understanding of free will to move towards or to reject the Light
• Quaker process, practice, and organizational structures
• Conflict resolution
• Service learning process: identifying needs of others and responding
• Playing and working cooperatively
• Demonstrating respect for self and others
• Relating with ease and openness to others outside of peer group
• Articulating what it means to be a Quaker
• Centering and opening to the Inner Light
• Discerning the Inner Light
• Confidence in vocal ministry (giving vocal expression to Inner Light during worship)
• Praying in the Quaker manner of “Holding in the Light”

We hope that parents will take advantage of the options suggested below for their children.

Youngest Children (ages 0-3 yrs.): Child care is offered for children as young as infants through age 3 from 10:00 a.m. through 12 noon in the nursery. Some parents prefer to keep children (especially infants) with them in the Meeting.

Older Children (ages 4-12 yrs.): At 10:30 a.m., most children ages 4 through 12 leave the Meeting as a group to go downstairs to an assembly, where they participate in activities like singing, story-telling and cooperative games. At 11:00, this group generally has a snack, and then breaks up into three group classes according to age.

Teenagers (ages 13-19 yrs.): Teenagers (seventh grade through high school) generally remain in Meeting for Worship until it concludes at 11:00 a.m. (10:30 on Second First Days, when Meeting for Business is held). They then gather to have their own First Day School class. On Second First Days, they hold their own Junior Monthly Meeting for Business beginning at 10:30 a.m.

The teenagers play a larger role in planning their own subjects for First Day School, and engage in a number of service activities. At some point in their program, Teen Friends spend a semester studying other religions, with visits to worship services at local mosques, synagogues, churches, etc.

Special Events:

Games Nights are held periodically. Members of the Langley Hill community bring in their own favorite games to share. Games Night provides an opportunity for all generations of the community to gather together for informal fun, pizza and a variety of games ranging from Chutes and Ladders to Twister, chess and bridge.

Easter Egg Hunt is held after Meeting for Worship on Easter. The teen Friends hide the eggs, which the children decorated themselves the previous First Day.

Halloween Gathering is held on the Saturday prior to Halloween. Children and adults alike come in costume, for an old-fashioned evening of bobbing for apples, eating doughnuts suspended on a string (with your hands behind your back) and other assorted pleasures.

The Langley Hill Christmas Program is held on the First Day Evening before Christmas. In addition to Christmas carol sing-alongs, children from the First Day School are sometimes a special part of the program.

First Day School Picnic is held after Meeting for Worship in mid-June, marking the end of the First Day School year. Meeting for Worship is held outside that day if the weather is nice.

Summer Children’s Activities:

From mid-June through July, Summer Children’s Activities are held instead of First Day School. They are conducted each week by volunteers, and generally involve outside play, games, and crafts.

Members of the Religious Education Committee of Langley Hill Friends Meeting would be pleased to talk with parents about First Day School classes and other activities available for children.

For more information, please contact: Religious Education Committee, through the Meeting House phone number, 703-442-8394.

Other sites of interest: Youth groups of Baltimore Yearly Meeting Baltimore Yearly Meeting Camping Programs Friends Schools in the BYM area