HSHSP Ep 147: Soft Skills for Teens: Teaching a Welcoming Culture
We’ve all had the experience of being the new person in a group and NO ONE talking to you or welcoming you in. We’ve all had an experience with cliques. We don’t want our kids to be part of that kind of unwelcoming culture. Instead we MUST teach them to create a welcoming culture. Join Vicki and Kym for one of their favorite topics!
To create a welcoming culture, we have taught our teens and our homeschool umbrella school necessary soft skills. The basis of the skills is the Principals of GOOF.
Principals of GOOF:
- Respect God
- Respect Others
- Respect Ourselves
- Respect Facilities
To make GOOF work:
- Establish the norms and teach them to teens and adults.
- Empower some thought-leader teens to be *facilitators* who introduce teens around, usher them through the day, sit with them at lunch, answer questions.
- Practice with these facilitators ahead of time. Even introverts can play this role, because it is a role (they don’t have to worry about *being themselves*, in a way). This is good for extroverts, too, they need the practice and the role so that they remember to be inclusive.
- Teach them to look around the perimeter of a group, find teens who are standing alone. Walk up and talk to them. Include them.
- For new kids.
- Teach them the magic nonverbals: Simply smile through the day, keep the shoulders up and chin up.
- Sit near the front.
Remember, if you invest in a few leaders catch the GOOF, it will spread… HOWEVER, all homeschool high schoolers, need to be GOOF trained. Talk it, talk it, talk it.
Remember, as our friend Dr. Melanie Wilson says, “Relationship before rules”. Develop those relationships and listen in on her podcast: Homeschool Sanity.
Remember, teaching drama class to homeschool high schoolers helps develop the confidence in playing a role like *facilitator* in real life. That’s why we have our drama resources that our teens have loved available to you at 7Sisters.
Remember, that Alexa will read 7SistersHomeschool.com posts to you. Here’s a post to tell you how.
AND remember that Vicki has LOTS of free resources at Vicki Tillman Coaching, including Confidence-Building Skills for Meeting New People. Download it for your teens. (And for the younger kids, download our: Social Skills for Children.
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