I don t care what you affirm just find a way to do it. Affirming kids earns you the right to be heard, and that increases your effectiveness in ministry directly and indirectly. If your junior high group is small, don t sweat it. Our church culture has created an expectation that larger is always better. This is simply not true.
Small groups can really get to know each other and create a sense of family.
I miss that when I m working with a large group. With my small group, we could throw the whole gang in two cars and have Sunday school at the donut shop. We were ready to roll at any time no planning necessary. And it was easy to be flexible. If we changed our plans at the last minute, it wasn t a big deal to call the parents.