So how was your Passover Seder? This year, we had our own small Seder the first night with just the fam. For the second Seder, we went to the large one at our temple. While it was joyful to be in a roomful of people singing Adir Hu, it was our home Seder that allowed us to go creative. Typically, we do a Passover reenactment in the house during the Seder (when we get to the Maggid or Telling). Ahead of time, we label different rooms as Egypt, Midian, Red Sea, desert, etc. Passover experience outside But this year, we decided to take the reenactment outside. While we read the same … [Read more...]
Grandsons’ Passover Seder Faves – Part II
In last week's post, we talked about our #1 way of engaging kids in the Seder with the Passover Seder Steps Follow-Along. This week, we promised to share another enhancement we have added to our Seder to keep things lively - and to teach the story of the Exodus. #2 - Exodus Reenactment Aside from using the Passover Seder game at the table, we were looking for a way for everyone to get up from the table. We wanted people to be able to move, physically, from place to place. So we set up a reenactment of the exodus from Egypt. To build Pharoah into the story without being too scary, we … [Read more...]
Color All Around – Sukkot Recipes and Crafts
Sukkot began on October 4th and ends the evening of October 11th What to do with this wonderful week ahead of you? As Anita Diamant says, “Sukkot is an opportunity and excuse for a seven-day picnic.” Here are a few things you can try to bring the holiday to life. Eat one or more meals outside. Decorate your eating area with fall leaves, branches, little pumpkins, squash, apples, and other harvest symbols. Plan a family outing to a farmer’s market to find recently harvested fruits and veggies. Make a harvest-themed centerpiece; simply group your farmer’s market finds with … [Read more...]
Making Jewish New Year Cards – Free Images
The first night of Rosh Hashanah 2017 is Wednesday, September 20th. So now’s the perfect time to make Jewish New Year cards with your kids. Send them to grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends – they’ll love ‘em! Creating Jewish New Year cards with young children We like reinforcing two key concepts of Rosh Hashanah in card creation: Round – round challah, round apples, hope for a round (full) year Sweet – apples dipped in honey, honey cake, teiglach. #1 You can take this wonderful art idea and apply it to … [Read more...]
Shana Tova! 3 Crafts for Little Hands
Thanks to Jordan Smith, a guest poster on other craft blogs, for reaching out to us. She said, “I was looking for a way to teach my home schooled children about other religions and found your site! My kids do best with hands-on activities, so I put together a list of crafts for them to do to learn more about Rosh Hashanah. While I am not of the Jewish faith, I did enjoy researching lessons for my children and sharing my knowledge with them. Here are three of the crafts I found.” I love the idea of reaching out to learn about other faiths, other cultures. As a child, I was the only … [Read more...]