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This is a single activity session plan from The Lifeskills Handbook. There are 61 activity sessions altogether. The handbook is available from our resources section where you’ll also find downloadable storybooks, books and posters to help you in your work.

LifeSkills Handbook Activity 28
Practising Making Decisions

Purpose of activity:

To practice using the 3 Cs to make decisions

Life Skills: Decision-making, Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Problem solving, Communication

Important points

Try to ask help from your colleagues in this activity so that children can ask them questions. They can be in the same room or nearby.

Materials

Steps

  1. Using the poster, go through the three Cs. Explain that it is not necessary to use the model to make small everyday decisions but it can help for those decisions that could have a big effect on your life.
  2. Tell children that they are going to practice using the three Cs.
  3. Divide people into groups and give each group 2-3 challenges they might face (using the list below, ones they identified in the first session and any others you think are relevant). Each group writes or draws the decision-making model on a large sheet of paper and discusses the choices and consequences of each challenge. You may need to help groups identify choices and consequences.
  4. Allow groups to continue working until the next part and remind them to be prepared to present their response. Encourage them to look for more information from other sources, from other friends, educators, adults or religious leaders etc.

You can have a break here.

  1. Give a few minutes for each group to finish their decisions (in case they consulted other people outside).
  2. Ask groups to report their decisions to the whole group. The other children may ask questions and add other ideas for choices and consequences.
  3. After all decisions have been discussed, end with the following questions.

Some difficult challenges

  • Meena’s uncle says there is no money to pay for Meena’s school fees. Her father always sent money before, but recently he has sent nothing. Her mother tells her she is sure he will send the money but Meena doesn’t believe it. She wants to run away early in the morning and go to town to find her father. She knows the area he lives in but she has never been to his room.
  • Achieng belongs to a group of girls who are a little older than her. They like to show how grown up they are. All, except Achieng, have already had sex. They now tell Achieng that she doesn’t deserve to belong to the same group. She does have a boyfriend, but they have never had sex together.
  • Nasir belongs to a group of boys who sell food and drinks to the big buses that stop in the village on the way to the city. The boys have discovered that it is easy to steal small things from the passengers as the bus drives away (earrings, handbags etc.), they pull them away as the bus gathers speed. Nasir has never dared try although it looks easy and his friends laugh at him and call him a coward.
  • Matteus has been going out with his girlfriend for a year and they have been having sex for 6 months. They have always used a condom but Matteus’s girlfriend is tired of using a condom. They want to get married and she sees no reason why they should go on using a condom. She is becoming quite upset about it and threatening to end the relationship.
  • Grace has discovered that she is pregnant. When she goes to her boyfriend, he chases her out and calls her a prostitute. She is afraid of telling anyone. Then a friend of hers tells her that there is an old woman who can help her get rid of her baby.
  • Augusto wants to go to secondary school but he has to pass an exam for government school. When he goes to find out the results, he finds he has missed his chance by only two places. A worker in the education office tells him that if he is prepared to give him a certain amount of money, he will make sure he is given a place, since he knows that some of the names on the list are not real.

 

Final Discussion:

Is it easy or difficult to make good decisions? What makes it difficult? (For example, the influence of emotions, or alcohol, pressure from peers or a partner etc.)

What makes it easy? (Knowing how to resist pressure, being sure about your values or goals, getting good advice from people you trust.)

Have you made a decision that affected other people? What happened? How likely is it that one of your decisions will turn out badly? What do you do if that happens?

Visit LifeSkills Handbook for more info or to buy your copy!