Youth Curriculum, 10-11-26
Youth Announcements:
Parents: classroom assistance sign-ups are open for the fall and winter seasons! Families are invited to commit to serving at least one Sunday each month. Look for an email invitation with the online sign-up link, and thank you for helping us create a thriving community for all ages!
CSL Winter Teen Camp Registration is Now Open through December 15th for teens ages 12.5 – 18 years. For more information and to register, visit our website at cslolympia.org under Youth & Family and Teen Camp.
October Monthly Theme: Dancing with the Shadow
Week 2 Value: The Shadow Tango
Affirmation: I bring love, honesty, and kindness to my relationships.
Curriculum Overview:
Youth explore how relationships can bring out different feelings, behaviors, and reactions in us. Through interactive scenarios, movement, reflection, and discussion, they’ll discover how small choices can change the direction of an interaction. Activities like Relationship Dance Cards give youth opportunities to practice listening, setting healthy boundaries, communicating honestly, and responding with kindness.
Spiritual Lesson:
Youth explore the idea that relationships are a dance—we are constantly responding to one another and influencing what happens next. They’ll consider how their words, body language, boundaries, and choices affect others while recognizing that healthy relationships require both compassion and honesty. Youth will practice noticing when an interaction is moving in an unhealthy direction and identifying a loving choice that can help shift the dance.
Meditation Practice: The Dance of Connection
Youth imagine themselves standing in a circle surrounded by the people in their lives. With each breath, they notice the qualities they want to bring into their relationships—kindness, honesty, respect, patience, and courage. They imagine offering these qualities outward while also creating space to receive respect and care from others. They finish by silently repeating: I bring love, honesty, and kindness to my relationships.
Active Listening: Book/Music/Video
Book: Younger Youth (ages 4–7): Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev — This warm story explores friendship, inclusion, and what happens when someone is left out. It opens a conversation about noticing how our choices affect others and creating relationships where everyone has a place.
Video: Younger Youth (ages 4–7): “The Power of Words” — Kid President — This short, upbeat video offers an accessible introduction to the idea that our words can influence other people’s experiences and that we have a choice about what we contribute to the world around us.
Book: Older Youth (ages 8–12): Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson — This thoughtful story follows a girl who realizes that small choices and missed opportunities can have lasting effects on another person. It encourages reflection about kindness, inclusion, regret, and the responsibility we have in our relationships.
Video: Older Youth (ages 8–12): “How to Know If You Have a Healthy Relationship” — AMAZE — This age-appropriate video introduces qualities such as respect, communication, boundaries, and feeling safe and valued, giving youth concrete language for recognizing healthy relationship patterns.
Music: “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars — A lighthearted song about friendship, dependability, and being there for people we care about.
Teen Media:
Video: “The Difference Between Healthy and Unhealthy Love” — Katie Hood, TED-Ed — This engaging presentation gives teens a more sophisticated framework for recognizing patterns that can make relationships healthy or unhealthy. It explores how behaviors such as control, isolation, and loss of individuality can become confused with caring, while emphasizing respect, boundaries, and maintaining a sense of self.
Teen Discussion: Teens consider: What makes a relationship feel healthy? How can we tell the difference between caring about someone and trying to control them? What role do honesty and boundaries play in maintaining connection? They’ll also explore how they can take responsibility for their own behavior without taking responsibility for someone else’s choices.
Creative Expression: Relationship Dance Cards
Youth work in pairs or small groups with cards describing everyday relationship situations—such as a friend interrupting, someone wanting to join a game, a disagreement over plans, or a friend asking them to do something they don’t want to do. They act out the scenario and then replay it using a different response, such as listening, asking a question, setting a boundary, apologizing, or showing kindness. The group notices how changing one person’s response can change the entire direction of the interaction.
Connecting: Changing the Dance
Youth discuss how the people around us can bring out different sides of ourselves and how our responses can influence what happens next. They identify the difference between being kind and simply going along with someone, and explore how healthy boundaries can actually strengthen relationships. Together, they consider what it looks and sounds like to communicate honestly while still treating others with respect. As a take-home practice, youth can notice one relationship during the week and ask: What am I bringing to this relationship? What might help create more honesty, kindness, or respect?