Online Summer Program for Children: A Letter to the Church in Corona
Normally, our programming slows down a little bit in the summer. (Part of this is New England culture, and part is our specific parish, where most are wealthy and many travel in the summer.) Our teen programs (Middle School Youth Group, Confirmation, and High School Youth Group) stop meeting, and our Sunday School goes from three classrooms to two.
This summer, due to increased availability and need, we’re going to continue all of our children’s and teen programming as usual online. We don’t know, though, how many will want a break from “normal,” nor how many households will want additional activities for their kids. So I’d like to add something fun and special for our children and teens! The fact that it will have to be based online just adds a little layer of complication. I’m hopeful that it can be both a reprieve to children and to parents, as seen in research and reporting like this NYTimes article.
These two ideas for an online summer program came to me after a nap on a particularly grumpy day off. We have yet to get into the weeds, and I’m sure details will change once we go further. But I offer them to you now to get your own creative juices flowing! Here below you will find the children’s program, and the teen program will follow later this week.
Guiding Principles
Once the novelty of gathering online wore off, we realized we’d need to adapt all our online programming to include more engagement and more off-screen activity. We adapted our Sunday School and Youth Group programs accordingly, and will use these same principles for the summer.
1. to use virtual spaces to gather children & teens: where the gathering is the point, not the virtual space
2. to give children & teens something engaging outside the screen which they can share in a way in the virtual space
3. to use the online gatherings as a way to hold space for children & teens (not to lecture)
4. to create structured habits and patterns in our programs, just as we would in person
5. to create space for sharing and spontaneous expression, just as we would in person
Children’s Program: A Letter to the Church in Corona
The title and inspiration of this program comes from the Rev. Peggy Lo, a classmate of mine at Berkeley who has been using this hashtag (#tothechurchinCorona) for her updates online. Seeing it over and over again planted the seed for me. Thank you, Peggy! The other seed came from the excellent picture book by Chris Raschka, Paul Writes a Letter, which I read in January.
This program will focus on the story of St. Paul and the early church—namely, that these Christians were in it together, even though they were apart. And they could learn from each other’s blessings and challenges, gifts and mistakes. We will send St. Paul around to our various (domestic) churches, and St. Paul will send on his stories and advice to everyone, the whole church in Corona.
Our St. Paul will be a Flat-Stanley-like figure that will travel from household to household. With him will go a copy of Raschka’s book, Paul Writes a Letter, and a letter of explanation. The letter will include an introduction to the story and our project, ideas for where to take pictures of St. Paul, and questions to consider that St. Paul might have written about. During the time the household has him, they can either write their own letter in the voice of St. Paul, or (more likely in the case of young children) have a video call with me, we’ll talk out the questions together, and I’ll write the letter. The pictures and excerpts of the letters will be shared on our website and social media, and in our weekly children’s & teens programming email.
So each household will get a special week (or half a week, depending on how many families want to participate) with St. Paul. But all of the children will have a way to gather and participate each week, too! In a group video chat, we will read one or two pages from Paul Writes a Letter, and then read a picture book that relates to it and talk about what Paul might have for us. (We’ve had pretty good success with this type of structured activity in our afternoon Project Times.)
Suggestions for questions and pictures are below.
Examples of where to take pictures of St. Paul
a. where you normally sit for church
b. with you when you’re waiting for Sunday School to start
c. at dinner with your household
d. having a fun adventure
e. with his own little mask that you made for him, maybe?
Examples of questions for the household
a. What stories would you like to share with other friends in the church?
b. What is it like to be at home all the time?
c. What advice do you think others could use?
d. Do you have any tips for when you get frustrated?
e. What do you think we can do to create peace and harmony in a house?
f. What advice do you have for other parents?
g. What advice do you have for other kids, both little kids and big kids? or advice for older siblings and younger siblings?
Other details to get
Who are you with? (Paul often said whose house he was staying with!)
Who would you like to send greetings to? (Paul often said hello to people far away!)
