Imagine how a child feels when hearing the applause of an audience or when making a friend at a new school. He or she will be feeling pretty good! But things could have turned out badly. The child basking in the applause risked failure at the audition and possible embarrassment on stage. The child enjoying chatting to a new mate risked the rejection of a peer. We could say that they both took, and benefited from taking, an 'emotional risk'.
Feel-good factor
Emotional risk-taking is a life-skill that requires confidence, and it comes easier to children who have good self-esteem. What feels like a risk to one child - speaking in front of the group for example - may come easily to another. By offering fun activities that boost self-confidence you can help to equip children with the emotional tools they need to take risks, and create the ideal climate for trying them out.
Leadership roles
Games that provide experience of leadership are helpful. Some children will need support and might like to lead just one person at first.
'Mirror Image' is a good starting game that's fun to play to music.
Children stand in pairs facing one another. One is the leader, the other pretends to be their mirror image by copying the movements that the leader makes. They must reverse the movements to mimic a reflection - for example if the leader raises their right arm, the image must raise their left. The leader must make slow, deliberate movements at first to allow their partner to settle into the activity, gradually increasing the pace, adding fine movements such as facial expressions.
You can progress on to 'Follow the Leader'. A leader is appointed, and the remainder of the group lines up behind them. The leader then does whatever they like, and the rest of the group copies them, staying in line - they might skip, jump along, sing and dance, pull a funny face at the person behind them... anything goes! Rotate the leader after a couple of minutes by having them run to the back of the line. If the child now at the front doesn't want a turn, they too can run to the back until a willing leader is in place.
Learning trust
'Trust activities' require children to take an emotional risk (trusting someone else) within the safe context of a game. 'Squeak, Piggy, Squeak' is fun to play. The children are 'piggies' sitting on chairs, close together in a circle. One child is appointed 'it'. Blindfolded and standing in the centre of the circle, 'it' spins around, points to a piggy, then walks towards them and sits on their lap. The chosen piggy must guide them into a safe sitting position. 'It' then instructs the piggy to, 'Squeak, piggy, squeak!' Piggy squeals loudly, and 'it' has two chances to guess the child's identity from sound alone. If they are wrong, the 'piggy' takes their place for the next round of the game.
'Radio-controlled Robots' is played in pairs and combines trust and leadership. A small object is placed somewhere in the play space. The 'robot', who is blindfolded, must retrieve the object by following the directions of the 'controller'. The controller can instruct the robot to move in various ways, for example, 'take five steps forward,' or 'jump to your left', experimenting as confidence grows.
Interest fairs
Children often have areas of interest or hobbies that they become quite knowledgeable and passionate about. You can celebrate this by holding an Interest Fair. Invite children to set up stalls at the club (a table and some wall space each is ideal), and encourage them to put their personal interests on display. Children may have artefacts to bring in - a collection of items, books or photographs, or perhaps they'd like to make something. Children can each design a backdrop to put on the wall including drawings or interesting facts. Give the children the opportunity to visit each other's stalls and to talk.
Using Creativity
Some children find it difficult to share things they've created, such as artwork or stories. However, the 'Portrait Game' makes the experience enjoyable, as everyone's end result will be funny. Children sit facing each other in pairs. They each have a large, thin book or something else to lean on and some paper. Balancing the book and paper on their own head they each try to draw their partner's face by stretching up their arms, using one to hold the book and paper and the other to draw 'blindfold'. Wait until everyone has finished, then instruct the group to take down their paper at exactly the same moment and look at the drawings together - there will be an explosion of laughter - guaranteed!