Passover Easy Jewish Creative DIY Project Ideas

Crafts

Passover starts at sundown tomorrow night, this year running from April 6 - 14. For the past few days many Jewish children have been home from school. Of course they're excited that Passover is coming but they're probably a little stir crazy by now, too.

I made this Moses Costume for my son for his Pre-1 School Play...

 

The wonderful resources in this post -- all of which are free -- are meant both to keep the kids busy and to save your sanity so you can finish your Pesach spring cleaning and prepare your festive meal for the Seder.  There are some fun, very creative and easy projects here, something for everyone. 

Depending on the age and skill level of your child, he or she may be able to do some or all of these alone while others will require adult supervision. Of course, by all means, if you have time to take a break from your pre-holiday cleaning marathon you won't regret enjoying making a craft or two with your child while bonding.

Free Passover Download Printables

Image from Aish.com

Passover Symbols Coloring Page from Crayola

Paper Egyptian Pyramid Craft from DLTK

Giant Assortment of Ancient Egypt Coloring Pages from ColorWS

Beautiful Hagaddah Kids Coloring Pages from Aish

Find the Chometz and Find the Afikomen Mazes from Aish

Free Passover Arts & Craft Projects

Image from Kaboose.com

Cardboard Moses Craft from Kaboose

Decorative Seder Plate With Model Magic Clay from Crayola

  

Paper Bag Frog Puppet from DLTK 

Image from DLTK-Kids.com

Fanciful Ten Plagues Placards from Creative Jewish Mom

You might also like this MBE Passover Post
Martha Stewart's Matzah House Craft and other ideas for Passover

Passover holiday crafts that your child makes are not only fun and educational projects that create happy childhood memories, they also become heirlooms for the future.

What kinds of crafts did you make as a child and what projects were your favorites? Have you shared any of your childhood crafts will your own child? Also, feel free to leave links to other Passover projects you like as a comment below. 

Happy Passover 

to those Celebrating

FTC Disclosure: MommyBlogExpert did not receive any payment or other compensation associated with this post. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's main page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.

Elegant Passover Kosher Collection Dessert Recipes Chocolate Strawberry Tart and Lemon Meringue Pie

Celebrations

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I love Passover, also called Pesach, especially the customs and the food. Usually we have guests for both Seder dinners as well as other meals during the eight-day holiday when we retell the story of the mass exodus of the Jews out of Egypt so there's so much food to prepare. For me, it's a time to slow down and appreciate the true meaning behind the celebration and the importance of passing down traditions to my children.

Passover Chocolate Strawberry Tart I Baked

Passover is not only about matzah, the flat unleavened bread that we eat for the duration of the festival. It's also an opportunity to zone out in my kitchen with a blank canvas and some fresh ingredients -- especially California locally-grown produce -- to create some really beautiful and delicious masterpiece dishes for my family and guests to enjoy.

Though not a trained chef I'm passionate about cooking and baking. Particularly I enjoy the challenge of making Passover desserts that my guests and kids will talk about and beg for all year long. So when cookbook author and food artisan Pam Reiss sent me her first and second books for review Soup A Kosher Collection and Passover A Kosher Collection, respectively, I was excited to try her recipes out from the minute I leafed through both books right after they arrived.

I'll be spotlighting some fabulous Kosher Collection soups I've tested in a future post later this spring. Pesach starts on Friday night, though, so I'd like to share two amazing desserts from Pam's Passover cookbook that I made last year and plan to bake again for 2012.  The first recipe is titled simply Chocolate Tart but I think a better way to describe it would be to call it Dense, Luscious Chocolate Strawberry Tart. To make the Lemon Meringue Pie I actually used two different recipes from the Passover cookbook that I combined and transformed into my own original interpretation: Meyer Fresh Lemon Meringue Tart.

Passover A Kosher Collection and my Chocolate Tart

To make either of the tarts featured in this MBE post you'll need a tart  pan with a removable bottom and of course the beautifully-photographed cookbook Passover a Kosher Collection by Pam Reiss, $29.95 and available in the U.S. and Canada. Visit PamReiss.com for information about the author and like on Facebook to hear the latest from Pam.

The Chocolate Tart (page 177) can be made parve with margarine (non-dairy) or dairy with butter and uses matzah cake meal instead of flour as well as cocoa powder, sugar, salt, egg and water for the crust. While the crust is baking you prepare the filling using a double boiler to melt/mix semisweet chocolate, butter or margarine, sugar, instant coffee, and vanilla extract. Lastly, six eggs are blended in one at a time which I think is what makes this the best chocolate dessert of any kind year-round that I've ever tasted. To top it off, garnishing it with fresh, ripe sliced strawberries adds an elegant presentation and requires very little extra effort.

Passover Lemon Meringue Tart I created Combining Two of Pam's recipes

The Meyer Lemon Meringue Tart I made is actually a combination of two of Pam's recipes. For the crust I used the crust recipe for the Chocolate Tart leaving out the cocoa and adding a tiny bit more cake meal than it called for to compensate. Then while the empty crust baked I made Lemon Curd (page 187) using freshly squeezed lemon juice made from our backyard Meyer Lemons which I cooked on the stove top with sugar, margarine, and egg yolks. The next step is to pour the warm lemon curd filling into the baked crust, cover it and chill in the refrigerator. After that I followed the recipe for the meringue in Pam's Lemon Meringue Pie (page 180) recipe. This tart made a stunning entrance at dessert time and everyone loved it. In fact a few friends asked for the recipe to take home, one commenting that this was simply heavenly -- that was my sentiment exactly too.

Mommy Blog Expert secrets to perfect meringue

• Separate yolks carefully from the egg whites you'll be using
• Beat to stiff peaks, but don't over beat whites to avoid toughness
• When you browning meringue watch it so it doesn't burn
• To serve meringue pie run hot water over knife to heat it, then dry and slice

What are your favorite things to cook and bake for Passover? Please leave a comment and share your ideas.

FTC Disclosure: I received Passover A Kosher Collection to facilitate this test and review post. However, MommyBlogExpert did not receive any payment or other compensation associated with this post. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's main page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one. 

 

Nonprofit Sparky the Fire Dog Site Educates Kids About Fires w/ New "Put Out the Fire" Online Game

Safety

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As a parent I've always believed educating kids, even toddlers, about what to do in case of a fire is essential. So when I heard today the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) just announced major enhancements to their free educational interactive Sparky the Fire Dog website for children, I wanted to share this valuable and free resource with my blog's readers right away.

My daughter & Daddy try on Real Fireman's Gear at a Museum

When my own four teens were toddlers -- triplets plus one more all born within a year --  there weren't really any online sources available to teach lifesaving lessons like this. Instead, back then my hubbie, the kids' preschool teachers and I each did our part to educate them as soon as they could talk about fire prevention as well as how to react in case of a real fire. 

Learning for our family included visiting several children's museums and going to an actual firehouse to climb on to a real firetruck. We also took them to public, library and school educational programs, watched VHS videos (the predecessor to today's DVDs) and read many books on fire safety together. 

My other daughter in a Real Firetruck at a Library Program

Today you can still do many of the old-fashioned hands-on things we did to learn about this important subject. Thankfully, to supplement real-life experiences, there are also modern resources that are just as engaging like the NFPA's site Sparky.org which is best viewed with Flash Player because there are sounds and animation.

I checked out the enhanced fire truck section which includes a brand new online game called Put Out the Fire that requires kids to think critically.  There's also an All About Fire Trucks section providing virtual tours inside different types of firetrucks and Follow the Sounds, a sound pattern game for preschoolers and school-age kids that develops listening and sequencing skills. I wouldn't want MBE readers to miss the fun and important information that comes across in the site's arcade or down loadable coloring pages, either.

My 4 kids at a Fire Truck Museum on a Family Roadtrip

Sparky the Fire Dog's site is definitely worth checking out for those of you parents with young children. You may also want to consider sharing this with your child's teachers at school as well as other parents you may know.

About Sparky the Fire Dog
Since 1951 Sparky has been the official mascot and spokesdog of nonprofit National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Since then multiple generations have learned about fire safety through educational materials featuring his image. In addition to visiting kids for school programs and public events, Sparky the Fire Dog is featured in public service announcements and in the Fire Prevention Week campaign each October. In addition to Sparky.org children can interact with the famous fire dog on Facebook.

FTC Disclosure: MommyBlogExpert did not receive any payment or other compensation associated with this post. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's main page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.