The Plagues of Passover

Lately, there's been a real attempt to make Passover a lot more fun. And that's good, because kids hate sitting around a table, keeping still, having to listen to adults read, and having to wait to eat. I've always felt that Passover, with its tale of gore, revenge, and retribution, was fabulous fodder for kids.

These plague kits help further this interest along. As anyone with any Jewish background knows, there were ten plagues of Egypt, each worse than the last, each sent by God to convince the Egyptians to release the Jews from servitude. When I was in college and attended Seders, we turned the ten plagues into a drinking game (we drank two shots at "boils"), but this is not acceptable behavior for responsible adults with young children. Instead, ply those kids with plague representations. Each bag contains:

1. A red disc for blood (easier on the tablecloth than spraying the wine)
2. 1 plastic frog for frogs (I never understood why this particular plague was so bad)
3. 1 black bag for lice (many kids have already experienced this plague at school)
4. 1 lion finger puppet for wild animals
5. 1 cow mash for cattle plague (probably anthrax)
6. 1 sticky hand with white dots for boils
7. 1 plastic ice cube for hail
8. 1 plastic locust for locusts
9. 1 pair of sunglasses for darkness, or Roy Orbison
10. 1 puzzle for death of firstborn

Does it sound overly morbid? Maybe to you, but it'll fascinate the little ones long enough to make it to the matzoh ball soup. At Oy Toys.