Kids not participating in Games

[JakeLab]

Hello Everyone,
In our youth group we are struggling with some students who do not want to play the games. The majority are very interested, and love games. We generally have around 80 kids in Junior high playing games. The kids who don't want to play will purposely break the rules so that they are out. Has anyone else had students do this before? If so what did you to to encourage them to play the games?

 

[Halbhh]

Hey Jake, our daughter is just now in the junior high group at church, and currently they are planning group activities like volunteering and also serving in the Sunday service. What games are y'all doing? Detail would help.

 

[tall73]

Are the children who do not care fore the games usually tuned in to the other aspects of worship, fellowship, etc.? If so, they may just not like physical activities, or games. I would say just have those who wish to participate go ahead, and the others can watch or hang out if they want. Once they have the option they can always join in to a particular game if they want to.

If they are generally not involved in the other aspects either, that may be something different to address.

If you talk to them about the issue, what do they say? Some may even prefer more study of Scripture or other activities to games. If they want to do so, they can spend the time doing that together while the others play the game.

 

[Jesusismyking87!!]

For our youth we give out options of what activities that the pastor would like for us to do and we take a large sum vote on it. And we use to have a child who did not enjoy allot of em but that's when we step in make the child feel warmed and welcomed and teach the children why its important to rally around one another.


Overall give that child time sometimes it could be a sign of uncomforting with the unknown or change. You may need someone who doesn't par take in that activity and just hang out with that child and just chat fellowship together while everyone else plays.

Some times youth ministry gets so tied up with we need to do an activity without realizing that this is a escape for allot of youth, or children who sometimes enjoy going to these with just an escape of being able to talk to someone without being judged.

 

[JakeLab]

Hey everyone, Thanks for the Responses.
Just to respond to a couple of things.
The Games that we play are different every week. Sometimes we play games that are physical, other times we play game centered around a mental task or solving a puzzle. An example of a physical game is Seated Basketball. A mental game is Psychiatrist. We try to vary the games so that we can have different interaction for each kid.
The comment about remembering that this is usually a safe place for kids to not be judged is awesome. I really appreciate that word.

Generally when I ask the students why they don't want to get involved in the games, they respond by saying they don't like games that have to do with balls; i.e Dodgeball, Basketball, Baseball... Even when we play games that are based on other things they say that its a dumb/stupid game and not worth playing.

 

[GreekOrthodox]

With a group of 80 kids, at that age, I would have been looking to crawl into the quietest corner of the room. If there were 4-6 other people in that corner with me, I would have felt fairly safe and the few of us in that corner might have found something in common. You might also want to look into some cooperative tabletop games like Forbidden Island or Pandemic for these kids to play. To see what these games look like, google Wil Wheaton Forbidden Island or Pandemic.

 

[beccabeccab3]

When I went to Church camp there were some that didn't play games at all