Pesach

This year at the Passover seder we got to see our tuition dollars at work. R. was so well prepared for Pesach we were rather blown away.

The day before Pesach bread R. brought home a Hadagadah that she had made in school. Each page was simple. It had the name of one part of the seder written in Hebrew on the top of the page. The pages were printouts, but one each page she had added the vowels into title words that didn't have them, added printouts of prayers or visual clues to the page, or drawn and colored on it. It was obvious that a lot of work had gone into this. It was nicely bound with plastic rings and the cover was laminated. I had a look, complimented her work and stuck it into the bag we were taking out of town. At that time I didn't really expect it to be used at the seder.

The seder night came. We went to my Sister's home were she had 23 people. R. sat down in her seat, ready to start, and the FOLLOWED THE SEDER with her Hagadah from school. When my Brother-in-law announced that we were moving from Kadesh to Urchatz to Karpas, etc, she found the page on her own , looked at her page, listened, and enjoyed feeling like she was a part of it all. Sometimes there was a little back and forth between her and my Brother-in-law or other people at the table..."Are we here yet? Isn't this next?" etc.

Then, she sang the Four Questions, solo. I needed to help briefly by reminding her the first syllable of a word her or there, but basically, she sang it by herself. They had practiced it once every day in school for a couple of weeks and had to practice at home each night. Although R. is not shy, she has stage fright and we did not expect her to pull this off completely.

I am not telling you all of this to brag about my child. Obviously I think my kid is great, but we all have great kids and they all achieve all sorts of things. I'm telling this story to show how well prepared she was for what, in the Jewish world, is an important yearly event. If she is able to enjoy and understand a Passover seder at this level in kindergarten, I really look forward to the depth of experience and understanding that she will have at the Passover seder in a few years, as she advances through the Jewish Academy of Wake County.