Voyage to maturity

Coming to the age of Mitzvah is perhaps one of the most important rites of passage in a child’s life. While planning how to celebrate this momentous occasion, many parents find themselves in the midst of great turmoil. Conflicting requests of all the people involved in the child’s life, cultural and traditional demands cause extremely high and intense emotions. Nevertheless, it is the parents’ responsibility to decide how to celebrate their child’s milestone.

So, before you pack up and catch the nearest flight out of Israel, here is the perfect solution which will, with no doubt, deal with most or all of the issues and is bound to satisfy all the parties involved. This solution will have a great impact on your child, family and friends. It is also expected to benefit the relationships amongst all your family members.

This is a proposal to celebrate a year of ‘Mitzvah’ which will set off a year before the child’s age of Mitzvah and will end with the child reaching Mitzvah. The process will connect the parents and the children to their important values, to their family and their traditions. This is a voyage through personal insights and recognition, team work, creative thinking, and most importantly, fun.

The first stage is to list together with your child the most important values and direct your child to choose only 13 of them. The next stage will require creativity and initiative in planning an activity/ assignment that the child should do for each value. This can involve family and friends. Once the planning is over, you are about to embark on your amazing journey, observing your child transformation from a child to a grownup.

 With every activity or mission, you are about to learn about your child's new aspects that you weren't aware of- His mature, creative and responsible side- his grownup side.

The highlight of this process is the celebration with friends and family where you can present your child’s assignments and achievements and an opportunity to thank all the people involved in the process.

Look out for my next blog where I will share some ideas for assignments.