Pesach is coming! Some seder planning ideas…
This year Passover begins on Saturday night, April 19, 2008, and my husband and I are hosting a seder this year. It’s time to do a little thinking about how we will conduct the seder in order to keep the children at the table involved and occupied, and preserve some semblance of intellectual discussion for the benefit of the adults.
At seders past, I have noticed a number of things that have worked well. Here are a few memorable things:
1) Have a variety of haggadot around the table for family and friends to use. Swap with someone if you want to read something new this year. There are kajillions of haggadot out there (just be wary of the messianic ones).
2) When reading through the haggadah, invite people to share the different commentaries in their haggadot, or personal stories or perspectives. Go around the table and have participants read aloud sections from the haggadah as you work your way through.
3) Have a long list of questions prepared beforehand, some for the adults and some for the children (tailored to the children’s ages) and intersperse the questions throughout the seder to keep everyone attentive (or awake, as the case may be). Here is a book I just spotted on Amazon that might be useful: And You Thought There Were Only Four: 400 Questions to Make Your Seder Enlightening, Educational And Enjoyable by Joe Bobker.
4) Have prizes on hand (for adults and kids) for correct answers. (Last year’s seder had a little too much candy as rewards. Consider stickers, small toys, etc. as an alternative to sugar for the kids.)
5) Decorate the table in a festive manner. The seder plate is the highlight of the table, of course, but strewn around the rest of the table can be toy frogs, bugs, or other appetizing symbols from the Passover story.
6) If children will be present, give them a good snack or light dinner before the seder begins to be sure they’ll have a healthy blood-sugar level, and consider giving them breaks from the meal and discussion. One can buy a “Box of Plagues” that has assorted toys (from Moshe in the teva to ping-pong balls for hail), or put together your own. These can keep them entertained (in the next room) while the adults have a deeper discussion, clear the table, or just take a breather from being parents.
7) Feel free to feed the kids part way through the seder, before the adults eat. Having warm soup on hand to serve when they start fraying is a good idea, especially if the children will be going to bed before the meal (shulchan orech) is served.
Have snacks on hand for the adults as well if your seder generally goes late. One seder I attended had chocolate and marshmallows on the table. For the more nutritionally minded, I would advocate a plate of vegetables, to be eaten after the karpas (when the blessing boreh pri ha’adamah has been said).
9) Even if the table is full of adults, don’t forget to have fun! The looniest seders I’ve attended have been kid-less. Enjoy thoughtful discussion, but cut loose, too. The Four Questions are a great opportunity. There is a book out that has the Four Questions in 300 languages, including Zulu, Old English, and Sindarin (a dialect of Elvish), that can spice up that part of your seder. And keep some harder Pesach trivia questions on hand.
10) Dress up. Our neighbors downstairs have had seders in years past when it’s just their immediate family, and everyone dresses up and lounges in the living room for the reading of the maggid section, only moving to the table for the meal.
For those looking for resources and ideas for Passover, here are some. (Special thanks to Jacob Richman for posting most of them on the Efrat chat list). I invite everyone to share their own favorite haggadot, websites, and other resources so we can all begin planning for a great seder.
Yeshiva University has two sites (children’s and family) with materials for the seder.
The J Site for Jewish Education and Entertainment includes some Passover trivia questions, clipart, a word search game (English/Hebrew/Russian), a coloring book, hangman game, and songs (with vowels).
Jacob Richman’s website with 157 links about Passover, ranging from laws and customs to games and recipes. Site languages include English, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, French, Portugese, Italian and German.
He has also collected 55 Passover videos on YouTube.
May everyone enjoy a chag kasher v’sameach!
Shimshonit,
Thank you for putting all of this info together in one place! Since my conversion there is a group of us at my shul (the musical folks… the synagogue’s singing group and the few of us who lead services and chant Torah) who gather for the first seder, and we do all Sephardi melodies and recipes and usually it’s a really great time. This year a bunch of them are going out of town together for the seder, but a couple of the families with young kids - including mine - are staying in the area and having a seder together that is more oriented toward families with young kids. It will be different, and I will really miss the people and music from our usual seder, but it will be interesting to do something different this year. I’ll check out those websites you listed, and certainly consider some of the ideas. Thanks again!
Shabbat Shalom,
Yair
Shimshonit…thanks for the post and giving me a place to share :) I never think of these post ideas until "after".
Avi and I just purchased "A Different Night". This comes out of the Shalom Hartman Institute which means it’s quite progressive yet traditional at the same time. It has ALL the significant elements of a seder intertwined with innovative readings for children and adults; not to mention games, songs, and great art.
You can see it here: http://www.haggadahsrus.com/PesachHomeCompact.htm
If you want a VERY thorough look including HOW TOs, WHYs, SUPPLEMENTS, there is an extensive list here: http://www.haggadahsrus.com/PC01intro.htm I believe this is from the Leader’s Guide which is a separate book. I picked this Haggadah out because I believe books geared towards children, though with adult messages, are best. I haven’t sat down long with this haggadah yet but it sure has some great features. I purchased the compact edition which is quite affordable for purchasing a family set. Some of the features listed on their site are:
complete traditional text with a new contemporary translation (gender inclusive), transliterations, clear directions, historic explanations, Hassidic stories, and folk customs. There are 8 pages of full-color art (Rembrandt, Chagall, Ben Shahn), children’s activities like find the hidden matza (like Waldo), cartoons, quizzes, women heroines of the Exodus, Passover and freedom songs (with transliteration of Hebrew), plus an optional "bare bones seder" – one hour, (short but meaningful), the 4 children (including the 4 daughters) are illustrated through many artistic eyes – 20 portrayals from 500 years of haggadot.
Another cool thing this book has as an added bonus is a foldable planning form. I can’t seem to find the one I grabbed, they were free. This foldable is a chart that helps the leader of the seder plan accordingly based on age. So, if you have toddlers, this chart tells you exactly which pages in the book work best. It covers from toddlers to adults. QUITE HANDY!
The second one we purchased is the Transliterated Linea
r Haggadah. This is in a great traditional beginners format. It includes laws and instructions on how to do the seder. For many Jews by Choice, navigating the Hebrew and how to’s for the first couple years could be challenging so I’d suggest this haggadah to help navigate smoothly.
Finally I will just mention a fun haggadah that was gifted to me last year. This one is based on (don’t roll your eyes) Disney’s “Prince of Egypt”. This is actually a more orthodox format. No transliterations that I recall. However, if you and the people you are “sedering” with are familiar with the ceremony, then the art is just fun and keeps kids eyes and imaginations going. All the art are snapshots from the animated movie. This one is a little pricey in hardcover though.
Hope this adds to your sources…Chag Sameach
Great post! I recommend everyone purchase "Keeping Passover" as well. It basically lays out the seder, the entire evening, lists haggadot, explains how to keep the kids busy — everything! And it’s chock full of great quotes and exciting things like that.
Two things: I realized that when I wrote "Dress up" for my 10th suggestion, it could mean "dress in nice clothes" or "dress in costume." Our neighbors actually dressed in costume. And another friend told me how her father had been on a business trip to Egypt the week before Pesach and bought everyone in the family authentic Egyptian outfits which they donned for the seder. (My Torah teacher said that among the Egyptian customs the Jews adopted during slavery was probably the style of dress.)
The other thing is that I heard from a friend about a new haggadah called A Night to Remember: The Haggadah of Contemporary Voices by Mishael Zion and Noam Zion. It’s a haggadah accompanied by a compilation of history and stories, enough to provide material for years worth of seders. It’s been in Hebrew for some years, but has been published in English this year. For those who appreciate the Reform movement’s publication of the Chumash, Gunther Plaut’s Torah: A Modern Commentary, this sounds like its spiritual cousin, with good Jewish sources and non-Jewish ones too.
This is turning into a bit of a brain-dump, but hey, the more ideas, the merrier. Here are some seder activities from the Naiman family in Ramat Beit Shemesh, posted on the Shemesh chat list:
1. Questions
For many years each child had to come up with 2 questions for each of their siblings. During Maggid, every 5-10 minutes, we would stop and hand out a question to each child. Once they had all their questions answered, they received a piece of the Afikomen which they could redeem for their present at Tzafoon.
I’ve broken up the questions our children came up with into "Easy" and "Hard", but that is relative, since it depends on the child’s age. I’ve listed the answers to most of them:
http://www.simchatyechiel.org/Pesach/Easy.pdf
http://www.simchatyechiel.org/Pesach/Hard.pdf
One year we put the questions in a format that we handed out as cards. Various different style questions are very important for older children, such as "What doesn’t belong?", "What is the common theme?", multiple choice, Jeopardy, etc. Check out (the answers are left as an exercise to the reader:
http://www.simchatyechiel.org/Pesach/Cards.pdf
2. 20 questions
Tie a scarf around person’s head and put a piece of paper in between the scarf and the forehead. The paper should have a Pesach related noun on it. The person has to guess the noun on his/her head. The people around the table who can see the noun can only answer yes or no, but often some will say yes and others will say no (lots of fun) and other times the answer isn’t yes or no. This game should *not* be limited to just the children - it’s fun when the adults have to guess as well!
You typically start out with "Is it a person?", "Place?", "Thing?". This worked out *very* well, great for all ages (pick nouns that are age appropriate). See Scarf attachment: http://www.simchatyechiel.org/Pesach/Scarf.pdf.
3. Numbers
Have children come up with various number trivia.
Examples: http://www.simchatyechiel.org/Pesach/Numbers.pdf
4. Grab bag
Another very fun game. Put lots of interesting stuff in a bag (about 10). Older kids like the creative nature of choosing unique items. Every once in a while in Maggid we would pass the bag around and each person would pull one out and say how the item was connected to Pesach. This worked out *very* well, because after the person answered, the original person who picked the items would say why they thought it was connected, often not the same answer! Then other people gave their reason and it generated good conversation. We had things like a sneaker (leaving Egypt in the middle of the night), teddy bear (Arove), stuffed dog (the dogs didn’t bark), plastic cow (Devver), keys on a ring (can’t remember), etc…
5. Marshmallow bingo
This is wonderful for younger kids (or grandkids). Make up a card, 5 by 5, of words from the Hagaddah, and give each kid 25 marshmallows. Whenever they see or hear a word on their bingo card, they cover that word with a marshmallow. When they get a bingo, of course they get to eat the marshmallows! And when they finish all 25 marshmallows, they get some other prize (or we used give them a piece of the afikoman which they redeemed later on in the seder for a present).
Don’t worry - they generally don’t eat all 25 marshmallows, but if you think they might. then give them different "healthier" items for each row, like carrots (or whatever you use for Karpas!), etc… Make a picture at the end of the row, so they remember which item to use.
Even better, we had our older siblings spend time before Pesach making up the bingo cards for the younger kids!
http://www.simchatyechiel.org/Pesach/Bingo.pdf
6. Charades
Younger kids prepare charade scenes before Pesach and the adults have to guess what the scene is about. Keeps them busy for hours before Pesach. Or kids & adults can play a speed game version, using these cards:
http://www.simchatyechiel.org/Pesach/CharadesEasy.pdf
http://www.simchatyechiel.org/Pesach/CharadesMedium.pdf
http://www.simchatyechiel.org/Pesach/CharadesHard.pdf
The even pages are the "back-side" of the cards. If you don’t have a double-sided printer, then just print the odd-page numbers ("subset" field in the PDF print dialog box). You can then re-insert the pages and print the even-page numbers.
7. Interviewee guessing game
Basically, the person interviewed had to guess who he was, based on the questions he was being asked. For example, if the interviewee was: "The last person in line in Yetziyat Mitzrayim". The questions were things like "So, could you see the Mitzriyim over your shoulder?", etc. Or: "Pharaoh on his day of retirement". Only worked with much older children.
8. Taboo
If your kids ever get into Taboo, have them make up cards related to Pesach and have their friends do it too - then you switch sets of cards so nobody knows the words. This game is lots of fun! Do it at Shulchan Orech, or on Shabbos Hagadol or Shabbos Chol Hamoed (we found it too much fun - and disruptive - during Maggid. Depending on the mood, we had each team say something about one of the cards they won. This is also a great game to foist on guests.
http://www.simchatyechiel.org/Pesach/PesachTaboo.pdf
Depending on the paper, you may be able to see the text through it, if so, you can print the following on the back-side of the cards:
http://www.simchatyechiel.org/Pesach/TabooBack.pdf
9. Treasure hunt
Last, but not least - set up a treasure hunt with 5 clues for each child. Have a break every 10-15 minutes during Maggid and let the younger kids search for the next 1 or 2 clues. The last clue brings them to a piece of the Afikoman which they could redeem for a present. This worked great when our kids were much younger.
Okay, two more things:
1) Some of you may be aware that Israel still has soldiers in captivity from the Second Lebanon War (summer 2006), as well as earlier wars. The soldiers are the following: Gilad Schalit, Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev, Zecharya Baumel, Zvi Feldman, Yehuda Katz, and Ron Arad. Freeing the captive is one of the most important mitzvot for Jews to observe. When that proves unsuccessful, one should still remember and pray for them. For those who wish to commemorate these soldiers at their seder, it has been suggested to set an extra place at the table, or to place an empty cup next to the cup for Elijah.
2) Here is a really cool rap for Pesach that is as educational as it is stirring.
And finally (and then I have to wipe out my fridge and kasher the countertops in the kitchen), a long poem, or "doggerel haggadah," by my dear friend Andrew Greene, that neatly covers most of the content of the seder in about 90 seconds (about 60 if you read it silently). Does not substitute for the real experience, but can be read at a seder for a nice overview. Enjoy!
I also posted on my website 50 Passover humor files.They range from funny jokes and stories to song parodies.You may want to print several of them before Passover anddistribute copies to your family and guests between the seder meal courses. Both kids and adults will find them entertaining (and sometimes educational).
The humor files are located at:http://www.jr.co.il/humor/passover.htm
The files include:- The Computer Engineer’s Haggadah - The Dr. Seuss 4 questions - An Adam Sandler Passover - Seder Pickup Lines - Halachik Issues for Peisach - Exodus of the 3 Stooges - Passover Story by The New York Times - Passover Song (tune of "Hotel California") - Passover Songs (Beatles Paradoy) - The Plague Song (tune of "This Old Man")- Pharaoh, Pharaoh (tune of "Louie, Louie") - Pesach Macarena (tune of "Macarena") - Those Were the Plagues (tune of "Those Were the Days") - The Ten Plagues (tune of "Adams Family") and many more…Enjoy!Happy Passover,Jacob
Hooray! Thank you, Jacob. Have a chag kasher v’sameach everyone!