Shabbat with young children, when nobody is sitting still

Shabbat with a three-year-old is not the Shabbat in the photographs. The thing that works is not asking them to be still — it is giving them a job that the whole table then depends on.

The shape that actually works

A child who has coloured the challah cover watches the challah all through dinner. A child handed a colouring page at the table is finished with it in four minutes.

The difference is not the activity — it is whether what they made gets used. Make the thing, then use the thing they made. That is the whole trick, and it works in any tradition that has a table.

Every question in this guide

If you want the whole set

Rosh Hashanah Challah Cover Craft

A make-your-own challah cover craft for the High Holidays, with four bonus Jewish kids printables.

70 pages · 5 files · $2.49

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