PARENTING

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Making the Seder Fun For Your Family

And other family fun ideas for Passover

Written by Lauren Silberman
Photography by Kirsten Beckerman

“The Talmud talks about keeping children’s attention during the seder,” says Rabbi Steven Schwartz of Beth El Congregation. “This isn’t a new idea. It’s a challenge that’s at least two thousand years old.”

Fortunately, there are many ways to keep children entertained and still preserve the traditions of Passover, which begins this year on the evening of April 8.

In his own home, Rabbi Schwartz has come up with several creative solutions. During the seder, his family often sends one adult out the back door dressed in an overcoat with a hat over his eyes. The mysterious “stranger” greets the children (ranging in ages from 6 to 12 years) when they open the door for Elijah. One year, he even set up a particularly unusual centerpiece: a water-filled bowl with live tadpoles swimming around to illustrate the plague of frogs.

Some of his congregants’ families have put on puppet plays, created trivia contests and researched discussion topics to help keep fresh the meaning of Passover. One family even has their children create a new Haggadah every year.

Other local families have devised their own methods for involving children. Octavia Shulman, member of Beth Am Congregation, looks forward to her daughter Eden’s second Passover. Since Eden is only twenty months old, Shulman spends most of her time focusing on building the language of the holiday.

She says it’s all about “the reading, the singing, [and] the eating.” She brings home books from the PJ Library: “Jewish Bedtime Stories” and “Songs for Families” which introduce simple concepts about Passover and create games to further her daughter’s understanding.

To teach Eden about matzoh, Shulman first reads to her about how the Israelites had to leave in such a hurry that they didn’t have time for their bread to rise. Then she makes a game of it. She sets a timer for 15 seconds, and the two of them scamper around the house, grabbing whatever they can before rushing out the front door. She says that it is important to “bring holidays to her level.”

Family traditions add a personal element to the seder for children. There will be four generations at Michele Hayunga’s seder this year. In addition to her two daughters, Julia, 4, and Ashley, 1 1/2, her parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents will make for a full house.

Several traditions have been passed down through the family over the years. Hayunga, member of Temple Oheb Shalom and Temple Emanuel, says that she can’t wait for her daughters to sing “Dayenu” with their great-grandparents, especially since it is her grandmother’s favorite Passover song. Furthermore, their grandmother reads to the girls from the same orange book of Jewish stories that she read to Hayunga as a little girl. The seder will be a big potluck with everyone bringing a side dish and enjoying her mother’s traditional apricot chicken.

While Hayunga is fortunate to have so many members of her family live locally, she recognizes that not everyone is that lucky. Like Shulman and Eden, her daughters participate in the “Playdate Together” program through Jewish Volunteer Connection, in which they visit with seniors at the Jewish Convalescent and Nursing Home. They sing songs and read stories together with the residents. She loves the intergenerational connection that develops between the residents and her daughters.

Rabbi Schwartz is quick to point out that it’s important to maintain the traditional elements of Passover. He says that many of the standard implements of the holiday, such as the seder plate, matzoh and the Haggadah, are enough to capture a child’s attention all on their own.

As Passover is celebrated this spring, many families will find their own ways of bridging their own personal style with the customary elements to create a more meaningful and special holiday for their children.