How to make seders 'kid friendly'

For parents of squirmy kids, a Passover seder can seem longer than the 40 years our ancestors spent wandering through the desert. The following suggestions should help you plan a family-friendly seder that promises to hold the attention of all kinds of kids - wise, wicked, simple and those just plain unable to ask.

Set the stage. You'll immediately pull children into the Exodus experience by adding scenery to the seder. Drape sheets across the ceiling to give the table a tent-like feel, or pitch a freestanding Bedouin abode in the corner. If you're feeling especially adventurous, ask guests to sport full Israelite attire (it's amazing what can be done with some sheets, robes, pillowcases and towels).

Not quite ready for primetime seders. Set an early seder start time, thus keeping the evil Pharaohs lurking within your kids at bay a bit longer.

It's in the bag. Hand out goodie bags at the door to your most wiggly guests. Include Passover stickers, mini-books and kosher for Passover candies.

Serve up some plagues. Scatter plastic frogs, beasts and insects (locusts) and other plague-related knick-knacks around the table.

Recline in style. Help kids use fabric paint to decorate plain pillowcases with Passover related art. Since reclining is the name of the game during the seder, these meaningful creations will be put to good use.

Stretch the festive meal. Grumbling tummies are prime perpetrators of seder night meltdowns. By serving the matzo ball soup upon arrival and offering up platters of carrot and celery sticks as karpas, you can squelch pre-festive meal kvetching faster than your kids can say, "Let my people go!"

Who wants to be a Matzohnaire? Passover is all about asking questions, but the big four are only the beginning. Keep kids excited and involved with the seder by intermittently morphing into a game show host. Be sure to award correct answers to holiday-themed questions with special Passover prizes.

Give a taste of slavery. Just as little heads are beginning to nod off, "discover" an envelope addressed to all the children at your seder table containing a letter from Pharaoh himself. Read the edict - commanding all children to begin building pyramids, immediately - aloud; pull out the blocks you stored under the table prior to the seder and let the enslavement begin.

Try a change of venue. Whether everyone moves to the living room to sing Passover songs or takes a walk outside to the pool to send a baby Moses doll off in a basket, a field trip away from the table during the course of the Seder works miracles.

Chop it up. It's much more fun to eat a Hillel sandwich when you helped in making the charoset and maror. In my family, making horseradish sauce is an annual pre-seder event. Since only those old enough to safely handle a knife are allowed to participate, the kids consider it a virtual rite of passage.

Put a spotlight on stories. The true purpose of the seder is to pass the story of Exodus down from one generation to the next, but why stop there? Ask a few of your senior guests to come prepared to share a true and entertaining tale about their lives. Their tales are sure to turn little heads back toward the seder table.

Finally, keep in mind that orchestrating a kid-friendly seder is liable to take far more effort than simply bribing squirmy kids with a pound of chocolate-covered macaroons or sticking them with a teenage babysitter in the playroom for the night. But by taking the time to do so, we significantly up the odds that our fidgety children will one day do the same for our fidgety grandchildren.

Sharon Estroff is an award-winning educator and author of a nationally syndicated Jewish parenting column.

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