It's important for educators and community mentors to stress to youths the importance of setting goals. When young people set, strive for and finally achieve personal goals, it boosts their confidence and fosters curiosity about what they want to do with their lives. A fun way to teach goal-setting is through games. When thinking of games to play with the youth, you want to choose games that challenge them intellectually and teach them how to be persistent despite tough obstacles.
Saving Money for Short-Term Goals
If you're having a summer camp and want to teach attendees about saving money to buy things, ask each student to choose an item that will take the whole summer to save for. Before starting, have them research the items then discuss the items' prices on the next day of camp. Each week the attendants will have to save part of their income or allowance toward that goal, and during the last week of camp, have each attendant mention how much money he or she saved. The attendees with the most money saved toward their goal will receive a certificate.
Include a game that helps children establish the goal of developing new friendships. To keep attendees from socialising with the same people during an event, prepare a game in which each one has to perform teamwork activities with people they don't know very well. Put the children in groups of two or three and assign a different activity to each group. Have three adults judge the activities on how well the task was performed and how well the group got along while performing the task. The winning groups can each get a prize, such as a gift card to a restaurant or bookstore.
During one month, have students visit three companies that deal with the careers they plan to enter. Write a list of questions they must ask about the companies such as "What is the primary mission of the company?", "What is an average work day like?", "What do managers look for in potential employees?" and "What advice do they have for the young people who are visiting the companies?". Then the students can write short mock interviews and perform those interviews in a skit. The young people who do the best job will receive a bag of school supplies.