Soulful Home
Supporting Families as They Explore the Sacred in Everyday Spaces
As parents/guardians/caregivers, we want to find ways to integrate Unitarian Universalism into our everyday home life. But it’s not easy. It can be hard to carve out time for faith-full family experiences. But here’s the good news: Helping families integrate UU theme-based exploration into their daily lives is what Soulful Home is about!!
Through their church's annual subscription, families get a packet at the beginning of each month that is organized around eight distinct family "spaces" with ideas and resources to fill those spaces with UU theme-based exploration. To focus our impact, we design the packets for families with children in the range of kindergarten to 8th grade. (Explore our youth ministry subscription, On the Road Together, for family and parent support for high school teens.) Here’s an overview of the various family "spaces" that Soulful Home focuses on: The Welcome Mat: Introducing the Monthly Theme The Welcome Mat section provides a brief introduction to the theme and how it relates to family life. At the Table: Exploring The Theme Through Question-Driven Discussions The At the Table section engages the theme through question-driven discussions. Questions are designed to be used at a family gathering, most often dinner but also during a quiet moment in the living room or before a board game night. This section strengthens the bonds within a family as members learn more about each other by asking and answering questions. At Play: Having Fun with Faith-full Games Our At Play section suggests games, crafts, and activities to help you experience the theme as a family in joyful, playful, and imaginative ways. We offer a brief framework for parents to use to introduce the activity and another to then help one's family reflect upon it, so that the insights learned in play can stay with us throughout the month and beyond. In Front of the Screen: Watching Meaningful Movies Together In Front of the Screen offers families ways to connect with the monthly theme through movies and TV shows. This section suggests not only theme-related movies to watch, but also prompts and "after-watching adventures" to help families discuss the movies and connect them to their own real life situations. At The Bedside & In The Reading Nook: Exploring the Theme Though Stories At The Bedside & In The Nook suggests various age-tailored books to create a more imaginative engagement with the monthly themes. This section honors the unique way stories enrich our sense of what's possible, expand our empathy and build our identities. As the wise ones say, we are made of stories. On the Porch: Facing The Hard Stuff Together Through recommended articles and videos, we offer parents and caregivers strategies to navigate parenting challenges related to the theme. We also offer follow-up questions that parents and caregivers can use to discuss the article or video with a friend or partner and deepen their takeaways. This section seeks to support parents when and wherever they gather with their circles of support to talk about soulful parenting. Alongside the Chalice: Inviting UU Identity Practices into our Daily Lives Family spiritual practices and rituals are crucial for kids, youth, and adults. And while lighting a chalice at home is a beautiful way to do this, it can often be the only explicit UU identity practice we bring into our homes. So our Alongside the Chalice section offers a different UU practice, observance, or ritual for families to try out each month, with the hope that a few will stick and become woven into the repeated and treasured rhythms of family life. The Extra Mile: Going Above and Beyond Together The Extra Mile section is for families who want to continue exploring the theme of the month through larger adventures and more complex projects. A bit more effort, but well worth it! Subscription Details
Cost Annual subscriptions are priced according to congregational size:
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For more information contact Susan: [email protected]. Soul Matters Sharing Circle LLC