[HANASHIR:10841] Re: Plagues song

[Freedabet <Freedabet...>]

I think we need to make 'age-appropriate' choices with the verses.  
Preschoolers think jumping like frogs is fun.  They can't really understand 
what a plague is.  They also won't sit for 10 verses.  So, choose a few 
verses as if telling a fairy tale.

As children get older the last verse isn't direct enough.  Why does Pharoh 
let the Hebrew slaves go?  The last verse doesn't go into the detail which 
older children should have.  

Michael

-------- REPLY, Original message follows --------

> Date: Monday, 04-Feb-02 11:10 AM
> 
> From: Sholom Simon             \ Internet:    (sholom (at) aishdas(dot)org)
> To:   Hanashir Mail Server     \ Internet:    (hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org)
> To:   Hanashir Mail Server     \ Internet:    (hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org)
> 
> Subject:  [HANASHIR:10838] Re: Plagues song
> 
> Sender: owner-hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
> Reply-to:       hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
> To:     hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org, hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
> At 09:51 AM 2/4/2002 -0500, H & R Shubert wrote:
> >I was introduced to this song (known as Frogs on His Head to the little
> >ones) when I started teaching pre-school music many years ago and taught 
it,
> >since it was part of the curriculum. Part of its effectiveness as a 
teaching
> >song comes from its humor and the fact that it is fun to sing and act out.
> >However, I never felt comfortable with it, because it seemed to celebrate
> >the suffering (albeit in a cartoon-ish way) and just can't bring myself to
> >teach it any more.  After all, we are taught to spill a drop of wine for
> >each plague at the seder.  Am I being overly analytical or are there others
> >out there who feel that way?
> 
> You raise a good issue, although I come down on a different side.  My view
> is that it is a way to teach the plagues that is in a non-scary manner.  We
> _do_ want to teach the plagues, and yet we _don't_ want to belabor how
> awful it was, at least for pre-schoolers.
> 
> Spilling a drop of wine is still done, and precisely to teach the message
> about others' suffering.
> 
> My two cents,
> 
> -- Sholom
> +-------------------------------------------------------+
> |   Sholom Simon     | sholom (at) aishdas(dot)org               |
> +-------------------------------------------------------+
> | proud daddy to Joshua Ari  4/18/93 - 27 Nissan 5753   |
> |        and Eliana Rebekah  3/12/95 - 11 Adar-2 5755   |
> +-------------------------------------------------------+
> 
> 
> 
> 

-------- REPLY, End of original message --------

------------------------ hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org -----------------------+