Discovery Dating Training Information

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

Dreams and Goals Chart 

We took our inspiration for this activity from the Game Plan workbook by Project Reality.  The top of the chart has a cloud in which the student fills out three goals they want to accomplish.  On the lower right is a set of stairs that represent the steps the student must take to reach that goal.  The lower left has a cube in which they write the things that could potentially block their path to their goals.  Finally, raindrops come down from the cloud, bringing the benefits of reaching their goals to the student and their community.

My Ideal Island Chart

The Dreams and Goals Chart helps the students focus on specific achievements they want to accomplish.  The Island activity looks at a broader picture and has the student think about the intangibles that help them grow into adulthood.  Students are asked to think about what they want in the home and family life and the things they want to develop or grow in their lives.  They are given time to acknowledge their sources of hope and enlightenment and to keep in mind the things they know are in their lives but want to keep at bay.  Discovery Dating class participants also take time to think about the people around them and who they would like to help have an ideal life.

Relationship Building Blocks

The Discovery Dating workbook gives the students a pyramid made up of 36 blocks of key issues one needs to know about a person in a healthy relationship.  Before the students see that pyramid, they are given the opportunity to build their own relationship.  Working as a class or individually, the students have 36 "blocks" they need to use to build a relationship, in any order they believe is best.  This activity gives the instructor an glimpse into the mind of a teenager to see what they really think is important and why.

Virtual Date

This activity was one of the first developed for Discovery Dating classes.  The students think of it as a game but it is a practical application of the Discovery Dating workbook and process.  The students work in pairs, one person in a relationship, the other as their mentor whose job it is to help them make decisions to have a healthy relationship.  Virtual Date consists of a number of small boxes with three sets of cards inside.  Each box represents one person.  The person in a relationship chooses a box and then tells the mentor why they selected that box in particular.  (What it looks, the only one left, the closest?)  Then they open the box and take out the first of cards.  These cards reflect the surface issues of the Discovery Dating pyramid.  They read the cards out loud to the mentor who then makes notes on the diary sheet.  After going through the first set of cards, the student in the relationship colors the corresponding pyramid box the appropriate color.  The mentor then asks the student, based on the colors in the pyramid, if this is a healthy relationship or not.  The next move is the student's choice.  Should they decide to continue in the relationship, they take out the second set of cards and repeat the process.  If they decide to end the relationship, the cards are placed back in the box and the box returned to the instructor.  After all students in the class have had a chance to be both a mentor and in a relationship, the participants receive two pieces of candy, one sweet, for the sweetness of a relationship and one sour, for all the sour times that come with a relationship.

Key Encounters 

Research has repeatedly shown that parents and children don't agree on whether or not parents clearly discuss tough topics with their teens.  Parents often believe that they have addressed issues such as sex, drugs, smoking, and education enough so that their children know what they expect of them.  Teens on the other hand, overwhelmingly disagree, saying they have no clue what their parents expect because they won't discuss such issues.  Key Encounters was developed to tackle this phenomenon head on.  Parents and their teens are each given separate cards on which to write their feelings and beliefs on such difficult topics.  They are then seated directly across from each other, knees touching, and read what they have written to each other.  To commemorate this event, a picture is taken of the two people which they get to keep as a remind of having actually discussed these issues in a direct manner.

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