Enjoy Your Time Together

Having fun is an important element of a young person’s healthy development.

Although you can play an important role in your mentee’s life, you won’t go very far together if you don’t enjoy each other’s company. Some suggestions for having fun with your mentee include the following:

• Do things your mentee enjoys. Include your mentee in making decisions about what you’ll do together. You can create a list with your mentee of activities that you like to do, write the activities on slips of paper, and place them in a jar. At the end of one meeting, you or your mentee can take a piece of paper from the jar to determine what you’ll do the next time you get together.

• Try new things together. You have an opportunity to expose your mentee to new experiences and ideas. Take your mentee to places in the community that he has never been. Try new foods together. Help your mentee to explore his interests.

• Have a sense of humor. Acknowledging your shortcomings to your mentee and laughing at your mistakes can help to improve the mentoring relationship. Being able to laugh with you can be an essential part of your mentee’s development—especially when your mentee is facing difficult circumstances.

source: http://www.advancementoring.org/online-training/what-mentor