Child Spiritual Development

At the Unitarian Society of Germantown, we encourage Wonder, Compassion, Mindfulness, Service… and Fun!
Upcoming Sunday Mornings
| April 5th: Easter! We’ll have a Children’s Chapel* before we do our egg hunt after service, COA will not meet. April 12th: regular CSD classes, COA meeting April 19th: annual CSD Service! The kids and youth in our CSD program will be leading a service on the theme of PLAY. We’ll all be in the sanctuary together, COA will not meet. April 26th: regular CSD classes, COA last meeting with mentors *Children’s Chapel means that all of the age groups will be together. We will still start in the Sanctuary and leave after the Time for All Ages. Parents can find their kids in Sullivan 1 and 2 on these days. The Wiggle Room is always open and staffed for our toddlers. For the next month you can find it in the Dining Room. See more info below. |
Special Events
Family Game Nights are twice a month on Saturday evenings from 5-8pm!
Join us in the Edna Jones Assembly Room at USG for games for all ages, snacks (potluck-style), and definitely D+D and Magic the Gathering! Upcoming dates: April 11th and 25th and May 9th and 23rd.
All Ages Art Potluck (Quilting Edition)
Thursday, May 7, 6 to 8pm in the Dining Room
Join us for a casual evening of arts and crafts over dinner. Feel free to work on your own creative project or join us as we start to decorate fabric squares for a collective quilt. We’ll assemble the quilt at our next potluck. Bring food and/or art supplies to share!
Beltane Celebration
Friday, May 1st
5:00 to 8:00pm in the Grove and Labyrinth
Come celebrate Beltane with us! Halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, this pagan holiday calls in good luck for the coming growing season. Although we won’t have a Maypole, we’ll enjoy a potluck feast, a large campfire, some crafts, and live music from local musician Tracy Welsh. There will also be time to walk the labyrinth and reflect on the turning of the seasons.
Kindergarten-First Grade OWL Info Session
Sunday, May 10th
12:15pm in Sullivan
Our Wholes Lives (OWL) is a comprehensive, values-based sexuality education program offered at many stages across the lifespan. In the fall, USG is thrilled to run it’s first Kindergarten and 1st grade OWL program At this age, it’s so important to receive honest, accurate, and gender expansive information about our bodies, our families, and our boundaries. The program will run for 8 weeks and be led by facilitators who have been trained and certified by the UUA.
This info session for parents and caregivers who are considering having their child take part in OWL. If you are unsure, have questions or concerns, or just wish to understand more about the program, you are welcome! Here’s the OWL website for anyone who wants to learn more about it.

We are recruiting adults to become trained OWL facilitators at USG! Our Whole Lives (or OWL) is a lifespan sexuality education program that fosters informed, responsible, and values-based decisions about sexual health and behavior. USG will run OWL for both a Kindergarten/1st grade cohort and our 7th-9th grade cohort in the fall.
In order to offer these life-changing programs we need a skilled and diverse team of facilitators. Trainings are offered online and in-person. The online trainings are about 25 hours over the course of 3 weeks, in person they are Friday evening, all day Saturday and half a day Sunday. For those that can commit to doing the training and helping run OWL in the fall, USG will pay the $350 registration fee. Please reach out to Zoë if you are interested in getting trained for either age group or want more information.
Please REGISTER your child or youth. We appreciate a new registration form each year. Thank you.
Check out the CSD guide! Inspired by our Teen Zine Night and the CSD service on creativity, we made a guide to CSD in the form of a zine. You’ll find a schedule of what to expect on Sundays, a loose calendar of events for the year, and some information about our age group classes. There will also be printed versions at USG.
Our Wiggle Room space is now in the Committee Room, which is at the end of the Dining Room (see note above about temporary move to the Dining Room.) Parents can drop their little ones off with Susan before service starts or keep your kids with you through the Time for All Ages before taking them to the Wiggle Room.
The Nursery at the rear of the Sanctuary (the room formerly known as the Wiggle Room) will be available for the very littles and their parents.
We ask that parents pick up their kids from class after service if they are younger than 6th grade. Take a look at where they’ll be!
- Infants and Crawlers can be with their parents in the Nursery at the back of the Sanctuary
- Ages 1-3 will be in the Wiggle Room off of the Dining Room
- Preschoolers and Kindergarteners will be next door at the Cooperative Nursery School
- 1st and 2nd graders will be in Sullivan 1
- 3rd through 5th graders will be in Sullivan 2
- 6th through 8th graders will be in Daskam Room
- Coming of Age (8th-10th) will be in Sullivan 3
If you have any CSD questions, please contact Zoë Johnston, USG’s Director of CSD, at dsd@usguu.org.
The Mission of our Children’s Spiritual Development (CSD) program is to:
- Provide developmentally appropriate education that supports the lifelong process of learning to cultivate goodness, compassion, empathy, and love for oneself and others.
- Offer safe and caring spaces for introspective work, connecting to nature, and building right-relationships in community across generations.
- Put into practice hands-on, experiential education for children, facilitators and parents that cultivates respect, stewardship, service, mindfulness, responsibility, justice, and the search for truth and beauty.
- To welcome young people into the UU community, help them find their way into becoming active members, and provide them opportunities to learn the rich history and guiding principles of UU.
We believe if the mission of CSD is fulfilled it will contribute greatly to fulfilling our overarching mission at USG of: Building beloved community with service, compassion and empowerment.
Please see the weekly CommUUnictor enewsletter for the most up to date info.
We are able to offer CSD because of our wonderful volunteers. Thank you for considering volunteering and click HERE for information and links to the required background checks for volunteers.