Youth Curriculum, 9-6-26

Announcements:

Harvest Festival: Help Us Grow the Abundance! Our Annual Harvest Festival is coming September 19th, and we’d love for you to invite your friends, family, and neighbors to join us for this fun community celebration!

Bring the Harvest! Potluck signup sheets are available in the lobby. Let us know what harvest-inspired dish you’ll bring to share. We’ll be accepting donations for the potluck, with proceeds supporting our community programs.

Dahlia Picking Adventure — September 17th!
Lynch Creek Farm is generously donating dahlias for our festival bouquets! Join us for a fun outing to pick flowers and help create beautiful bouquets for the festival. Sign up in the lobby if you’d like to participate.

Pumpkin Paint & Cider Sip
We’re still looking for a backup artist to help lead this popular activity. If you have artistic skills—or know someone who does—let us know!

Spread the Word!
Grab a Harvest Festival flyer in the lobby and help us get them posted around town. The more people who know, the more we can share the abundance!
Let’s make this year’s Harvest Festival our most bountiful and abundant celebration yet!

September Theme: Radical Embodiment
Week 1 Value: Inhabiting Togetherness
Affirmation: I honor embodied creation through my physical self.

Curriculum Overview:

In Week 1, youth and teens explore the idea that our bodies are an important part of our spiritual experience. Our bodies help us connect with others, experience nature, communicate what we need, and participate in our communities.

This week, participants will practice noticing physical signals such as energy, tension, relaxation, excitement, and the need for rest without judging them as good or bad. Through movement, reflection, creative expression, and conversation, youth will begin discovering that their bodies can offer useful information and wisdom.

Participants will also explore how respecting our own bodies helps us create communities where everyone’s physical experience, boundaries, and individuality are honored.

Spiritual Lesson:

Spirit and body are not separate or competing parts of who we are. Our physical experience is one of the ways we experience the Divine, connect with others, and express our unique selves.

Science of Mind teaches that each person is an individualized expression of Spirit. Our bodies are part of that individual expression, and caring for ourselves can be a spiritual practice. Rather than judging bodies by appearance or comparing ourselves with others, we can learn to approach our physical selves with curiosity, gratitude, and respect.

Youth will learn that listening to the body does not mean trying to change it. It means becoming aware of its messages and responding with kindness. When we honor our own embodied experience, we become better able to respect the bodies, boundaries, and experiences of others.

Spiritual Practice: Body Check-In & Listening Within

Youth and teens will begin with a short guided body awareness practice. Sitting, standing, or resting comfortably, participants will notice how their bodies feel in the moment.

They’ll be invited to quietly consider:

“Is my body feeling energized, calm, tense, relaxed, hungry, tired, excited, or something else?”

Participants will then ask themselves:

“If my body could speak to me right now, what would it say?”

The emphasis is on noticing rather than judging. Youth can choose to share their response or keep it private.

The practice concludes with the affirmation:

“I honor embodied creation through my physical self.”

Active Listening: Book / Music / Video

Younger Children (Ages 4–7)

• Book: Be You! by Peter H. Reynolds
  A joyful reminder that every child is wonderfully unique
• Music: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
  A familiar movement song that encourages children to notice and celebrate the different parts of their bodies.
• Video: The Listening Walk by Paul Showers
  Encourages children to slow down, notice sensory experiences, and become aware of what their bodies are experiencing.

Children & Preteens (Ages 7–12)

• Book: My Body Belongs to Me by Jill Starishevsky
  Reinforces body ownership, personal boundaries, and the importance of respecting ourselves and others.
• Music: Try Everything from Zootopia
  Encourages confidence, curiosity, and experiencing life through movement and action rather than perfection.
• Video: The Power of Yet – Sesame Street
  Offers an age-appropriate reminder that growth, learning, and self-discovery happen through experience and patience.

Teens (Ages 13–16)

• Reading: Selected age-appropriate discussion excerpts about body awareness, self-image, boundaries, and social expectations.
• Music: Scars to Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara
  Encourages reflection on self-worth beyond appearance and challenges narrow expectations about bodies.
• Video: The Power of Vulnerability by Brené Brown
  Provides an accessible starting point for discussing authenticity, connection, self-acceptance, and the courage to be fully present.

Creative Expression Activity: Body Wisdom Map

Youth and teens will create a Body Wisdom Map using a body outline, drawing, collage, or words.

Rather than focusing on how their bodies look, participants will identify what their bodies communicate and how they can respond.

Around their map, participants will add healthy responses. This reinforces the idea that our bodies are worthy of being listened to and cared for, not judged.

Connecting: Wholehearted Circle

Youth will gather in a closing circle and complete the sentence:

“One thing my body helps me experience is…” or “One way I can listen to my body this week is…”

Group Response:

“My body is part of my sacred experience, and I will listen with kindness.”