Web sites don’t pass over children’s inquiring minds

Why is the upcoming holiday called Passover?

A. Because the Israelites had to pass over the Nile to leave Egypt.

B. The Angel of Death passed over Egypt, and killed all the first-born.

C. Or because at Pesach, the spaghetti must be finished and the pasta "over."

That's just one of the many Pesach quiz questions found on the Web, which is full of puzzles, games, songs and coloring books to help kids gear up for the big holiday. Here are some of the best.

A great place to start is at Virtual Jerusalem's Pesach Parade -- http://www.vjholidays.com/pessach/ parade.htm

That's where you'll find the answer to the quiz mentioned above. There's also a children's Haggadah, some holiday recipes geared toward kids and an animated video about Passover -- http://www.vjholidays.com/pessach/jtn.htm

You will need to register for a free password in order to gain access to some of the Virtual Jerusalem pages.

Is your child making his or her singing debut at this year's seder? They can brush up on their rendition of "Mah Nishtanah" or "Dayenu" at Passover Tunes for Kids -- http://www.613.org/kidpassover.html

A bit less traditional but very wonderful site is Uncle Eli's Special-for-Kids Most Fun Ever Under-the-Table Passover Haggadah -- http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Uncle_Eli/Eli.html

Written in the style of Dr. Seuss, Uncle Eli retells the Haggadah in a familiar yet unique way:

"Why is it only on Passover night we never know how to do anything right? We don't eat our meals in the regular ways the ways that we do on all other days...Cause on all other nights we may eat all kinds of wonderful good bready treats like big purple pizza that tastes like a pickle, crumbly crackers and pink pumpernickel...Yes -- on all other nights we eat all kinds of bread, but tonight of all nights we munch matzah instead."

Do you need help with the cooking this year? Put your kids to work. At Kids Kook for Pesach -- http://www.vjholidays.com/pesach/food.htm -- there are easy recipes for charoset (the mortar you love to eat!), cheese blintzes and Matza Pizza Treatsa.

And when you're finished with that, try the Matzah Ball Game Quiz at http://www.his.com/~chabad/passover/

Budding young artists may want to check out a couple of Passover coloring books that you can print and then decorate. The Diaspora Yeshiva pages focus on the steps of the seder -- http://www.mznet.org/holidays/seder/seder.htm -- while Torah Tots also has pages illustrating the story of Pesach and the Ten Plagues at http://www.torahtots.com/holidays/pesach/pescolor.htm

Torah Tots does a great job at retelling the story of Passover in addition to a generous supply of games like Puzzling Plagues and Word Find.

For more kids' pages, check out the quizzes at the Department of Jewish Education at http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/pesgnen.html

Billy Bear's Pesach Holiday has some mazes (Help Moses Find the Ten Commandments/Help the People Cross the Red Sea) at http://www.billybear4kids.com/holidays/pesach/pesach.htm

Another amusing game encourages you to search for any chametz that may be hiding on your computer screen at http://www.anshe.org/chometz.htm

With a few deft clicks of the mouse, you are chametz-free. If only cleaning the real stuff were that easy!