How can parents help their preteens or ‘tweens’ on their road to adulthood? Children need to know what it means to be an adult with strong character and values. 12 Tasks will guide you on how to create a rite of passage for your emerging adult. The book tells the story of where 12 Tasks began 30 years ago among some families in Kenya. It traces the history and importance of rites of passage in traditional culture. Then it offers a clear how-to for designing your own version of 12 Tasks for your child – including ways to assess your child, choosing the tasks, completing and then celebrating at the end. 12 Tasks is not an easy journey, but it will help deepen your relationship as a parent with your child and it will help you guide your son or daughter in their transition toward adulthood.
This book was written by two fathers who are passionate about helping their children and grandchildren make a successful transition from being youth to being adults. 12 Tasks offers a personal and practical path for parents with the same passion to help their children on the journey to adulthood.
Meet the Authors
Jack Taylor
Learn more about Jack and his other books.
Shel Arensen
Learn more about Shel and his other books.
Check out our 12 Taskers blog for stories and experiences of parents who have done or are doing the 12 Tasks with their kids.
The Mountains Around Us
I had to smile when I heard the young preacher from the prairies talk about his sense of coming into my area of the country. He had come from a place where you could see a dog running fifty miles away. Now, he stood gazing up at whitecapped peaks which tickled the...
Four Things for Grace-based Parenting
I am a fan of grace. There are times in my life when I knew that talking about grace wasn’t going to be enough. Grace is undeserved favor and nothing I could do in a given situation was going to change the way I’d blown it. I’ve needed grace with my wife, my...
Setting Traditions as a Family
We all have traditions. They may not look like anyone else’s but we have them. Whether it’s the Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years or Easter festivities – we know where we’re supposed to meet and what we’re supposed to do. One of our family traditions is to go camping...
Should Gaming Be a Task?
One temptation as parents is to make the 12 Tasks easier on their child by choosing an activity they are already achieving at and simply upping the accomplishment for that area. That can work but you need to be careful not to play into anything that might seem like a...
Testimonial
Our book, 12 Tasks: Creating a Rite of Passage, is beginning to have an impact on families. Here’s a testimonial from our friend Gaylene DeMars from Fresno, California. “I picked up one of your 12 tasks books and shared it with a family at church that has an...
Fighting Fair With Your Teen
Fights between two independence-oriented individuals seem inevitable – even within the same family. James (4:1) tells us that fights and quarrels are caused from unmet desires battling within us. We want something but can’t get it so we focus our laser-anger on the...