Under 19s’ minutes
Minutes from Friends aged 0-11 at Yearly Meeting Gathering
New Shoots (0-2 year olds) We have done an on-going picture minute of all we have done together. We’ve enjoyed toys, walks, songs, sleeps and lots of paint and sticking. Walks together with pictures under the willow tree were a highlight that let us keep cool.
The core team volunteers have been supported by a fantastic team of daily volunteers. Thank you. We enjoyed seeing the children blossom over the week. Their willingness to try everything, their unstinting joy and cooperation, their sharing and kindness to each other, their boldness and most of all their sense of wonder have been joys which have enriched us all.
Fox Cubs (3-4 year olds)
Looking after ourselves, our community and our planet.
We have collected our thoughts and ideas, and made paper cut outs of ourselves to be our own individual journals. We have made marvellous hats to celebrate how special and how different we are.
We thought about ourselves and what we need to be safe and comfortable.
We talked about the Inner Light and ‘that of God within us’ and made coloured holders to hold and protect our candle flames.
We thought about the beautiful things which are around us and how we can look after living things. We have taken care of our bean sprouts each day.
We used bits of rubbish to make useful things and created a beautiful sculpture. By recycling we can help to look after the planet.
We read the story of The man who planted trees and learned how he cared for his community.
We made our own village and forest and thought of what is important to community life.
We want to go home to tell the people in our Meetings about the journals we have made.
Penn Friends (5-7 year olds)
We’ve been a good group, and all worked well together. It was fun to do teamwork, because we each got a job to do and didn’t get left out.
The activities were really good fun: we liked the Fairtrade games; going on a walk; picking blackberries; and finding our way to the middle of a labyrinth.
We also liked doing our journals because it helps us remember what we did. We listened to each other and got to know new people. If we weren’t in the group we wouldn’t have made all these new friends.
Some of us don’t want to leave – but we have to.
Light Explorers (7-9 year olds)
We are the Light Explorers. Some travelled over 400 miles, others only a few miles. Many of us were tired.
We enjoyed football and the mini-Olympics, writing in our journals, playing parachute games and name games. We had fun pretending to be camels and watching the magic show.
We have been challenged by the hot weather, and sometimes we have behaved in silly and unkind ways.
This has been an opportunity to learn more about peaceful ways to sort out problems when we get hot and bothered.
Our daily story Norton the cat helped us to relax and calm down. Godly Play with Chris Nickolay, using props, helped us to understand the stories. We enjoyed the one about children who kept the Meeting going, especially the sword.
Our painted flags for peace and our pyramids, with our fears inside and happiness outside, decorate our stairwell. We also had fun dressing as Quakers from long ago and exploring ways to recycle.
Spiritual Warriors (9-11 year olds)
A big hello from all the Spiritual Warriors. We had a fun and eventful week, full of fun games and activities. Our favourite activities included:
• making shields because it got us to express our strengths and fears;
• the mini-Olympics and other outside games were fun and energising;
• we made posters describing Quakers because it made us think of who we are;
• we made things out of recycled rubbish because it encouraged us to re-use stuff;
• when we made a peace banner we worked together, which achieved more;
• we thought about the testimonies and what they mean to us in our lives.
Over the course of this week the over 20s have been brilliant. They have been kind and friendly. They have encouraged us to be more involved, which has meant we have all made lots of new friends. We have enjoyed this week very much and hope to come again.
We hope you have enjoyed your week as much as we have.
