Adventures in Mama-Land

If, as Jewish parents, we care so much about sharing Judaism with our kids, why aren’t we doing it through the books we read them??? Only slightly frustrated by a flood of Chanukah books coming at me from all sides, I decided to go to my friendly local online library (in Toronto) and search for various keywords of Jewish life, just to rank which categories were most important to us, as parents and readers, based on how many kids’ books turned up in each category. So it turns out we’re telling our kids a whole lot – about Hanukkah and the Holocaust. And not much else. I want to point out up front that this search was never

Yes, Chanukah is sneaking up on us SOOoooon! It’s early this year, so I wanted to jump right in and share this list of resources that I’ve created and shared.  Some are geared towards homeschoolers, but most are great for any family to share. Most are free, but my books (print & Kindle) and lapbooks are not.  I hope you’ll check them all out!   If you find something useful, leave a comment or share the link to this page to help others out. FREE Resources & Ideas for Chanukah learning & fun for the whole family: Chanukah Family Song Book (with links to tunes!) Chanukah copywork and Activity Pack Chanukah Family Science Project:  Oil, Water, Fire & Ice “Parsha” Poem for Chanukah (to read aloud together) Menorah in a Box (original craft idea) Chodesh Kislev (craft idea) Melted Wax & Oil “stained glass” Painting (craft idea) Nine Cool Lessons in Chanukah Fun Colouring Book (by me, and it’s free to download!) (see more pictures ...

Usually, I write reviews of Jewish books – for kids and adults – here on this blog (Adventures in MamaLand).  But I also have a blog called Write Kids’ Books , specifically for children’s book writers.  Sometimes, there’s some crossover and I’m not sure where to post something. When I took a children’s picture-book writing course earlier this year, I had to research “comps” – comparable books on a similar topic.  Since I was writing a Chanukah book, I decided to research what else was out there in the world of Chanukah books.  I chose these books almost at random, but I think it’s a good assortment of what’s out there. Over on my writing blog, I’ve shared a short analysis of each of these books.  How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukah? by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Mark Teague Mrs. Greenberg's Messy Hanukkah, by Linda Glasser, illustrated by Nancy Cote Esther’s Hanukkah Disaster, by Jane Sutton, illustrated by Andy Rowland Chanukah Lights, by Michael J. R...

Want to see something cool? Both of my kids’ schools are making a huge deal out of something I’ve literally never noticed.  The name of the current Hebrew month, Kislev (כסלו), can be divided - with only a little wizardry - into two separate words:  kis (כיס/pocket) and lev (לב/heart).  (That’s the wizardry – the “vav” is swapped out for a “vais”/”vet”.) So GZ brought home this “mitzvah note” project from Kitah Alef (Grade One), where we have to use this month fill up his “pocket” with love and nachas. Which I think is just an absolutely terrific excuse to praise a kid who’s three months into his first real year of school and hovering halfway between feeling confident because he knows the routines and feeling like he’s drowning in the despair that comes from realizing there are so many months (and years) still to go. Very cool.  Why didn’t they do this at either of my kids’ Jewish schools back in Canada?  No idea. A good friend of mine growing up, who mov...

Chanukah’s coming… What could go wrong??? Well, Murphy’s Law of Holidays says anything that CAN go wrong WILL go wrong when it comes to holiday seasons.  But there’s no reason we can’t laugh about it now. Tell me all about your biggest, baddest, funniest, craziest or most MONSTROUS Chanukah disaster and you could win my book Chanukah Monsters (softcover, 8.5” x 8.5”, full-colour paperback, retail value $8.99 on Amazon.com), including mailing anywhere in the United States or Canada (sorry, other people; I love you, but you’re too expensive!). One winner will receive one copy of Chanukah Monsters , by Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod (hey, that’s me!). Second and third runners-up will receive a free e-copy of any of my books available in digital form (winner’s choice). Come on… think up your worst disaster.  Get it off your chest and help the rest of us smile when we’re thinking about what could go wrong (or right) this year.  It doesn’t have to involve fire, or latke poi...

Like it, Share it, pass it along!  Here’s the link:  http://bit.ly/coloringchanukah (You may have to join CurrClick if you haven't already, but membership is free, and this was easier than hosting the PDF myself). The colouring book is based on the artist’s original sketches for my new book, Chanukah Monsters, with brief all-new text added by moi . While you’re at it, if you like the colouring book, check out the original Chanukah Monsters , available now for print and Kindle from Amazon.com: Enjoy, and if you do, pass it along to a friend!   Tzivia / צִיבְיָה Sign up now for Jewish parenting ideas, inspirations, and freebies (no spam!)

I’ve spent years creating picture books, stories and curriculum materials on every possible Jewish theme.  But when I sat down to write my first chapter book for slightly older readers, I surprised myself: It turns out it’s all about Christmas. It’s called No Santa! , and there’s a picture of the jolly guy himself right there on the cover – chased by a menorah. Why did I write this book?  Why davka (specifically) about Christmas? Because Christmas just is .  Even for Jewish kids, if they’re growing up in North America (or any country other than Israel), it’s not possible to avoid it or sidestep it.  And many kids, even if they are Jewish, grow up celebrating it in some way. Oh, we never SAID we were “celebrating Christmas” when we were growing up.  My parents would never have allowed that.  We never had a tree – that was waaaay over the line.  But we had stockings.  Beautiful felt stockings, hand-decorated in red and green and sequins....

Do you have something you’re really bad at? I do, so I’ll go first. I’m lousy at self-promotion.  Not just bad.  Lousy.  Especially in person.  I have been at people’s houses, shown them the parsha book that I wrote, and then, when they ask me where they can buy one, I say something like, “oh, it’s probably not right for you.”  Or, “you don’t want to buy it.” Literally, I have said that.  More than once.  I’m like the ANTI self-promotion force.  I am my own worst critic. But it’s that time on the Jewish calendar (note to self:  buy new calendars!) when we head out – or head online – to buy kids’ books for the upcoming fall yamim tovim.  Whether they’re for our own children, other people’s children, or just to hand out randomly to children we meet on the subway (hey, a struggling author can hope, right?).  We’re all in the mood for books that make Judaism fun, colourful and appealing. So I’m going to take a break to blow my o...

Today on Shabbos, our shul had a parent-and-kid davening which we went to, for a change (which involved actually getting up and GOING to shul – yay, me!).  During the “amidah” there was a moment when kids could close their eyes and ask Hashem for something, which I thought was a very nice thing, though everybody was a bit fidgety by that point. Later on, at bedtime, Naomi revealed what she’d been thinking during this solemn, silent moment:  “I wished there was life on Mercury, because then you’d have your birthday every 88 days.” Then, GZ chimed in:  “I thought about blueberries, and strawberries, and cranberries!”  I tried to bring it back to Hashem by saying those were indeed some of His most wonderful gifts.  Then, Naomi came back with the second part of her “Wish to Hashem”:  “And then I thought, if you lived on Mercury, because it’s such a lucky place, people who were poor could take their net to the river and just find $100!”  GZ:  “If yo...

What?  We did science?  It’s a miracle!  Ha ha ha ha… I kid, I kid.  But I did mention in my Chanukah activities round-up last night that our science has been somewhat less than rigourous lately.  We are enjoying our readings and workbook pages in Mr. Q Earth Science , and I’m actually happier than I thought I’d be to be spending a year away from Life Science, but we aren’t doing a ton of experiments, probably because (sigh) I’m not (in real life) a deeply experimenty person.  I don’t mind experiments, but don’t like Gathering Stuff.  Plus, it’s cold outside and this week’s Mr. Q. experiments involve tracking the position of the sun, which is kind of a tough thing to do if it doesn’t put in an appearance from one week to the next. But what we do have is lots and lots of olive oil…!  So we did three easy oil-and-water experiments – or rather, explorations .  I prefer this word because, honestly, I’m not really testing a hypothesis when I do...

My annual, non-comprehensive but hopefully fun and well-rounded, roundup of What There Is For You Online.  Enjoy! From Chinuch.org So!  With 40+ pages of Chanukah stuff on Chinuch.org, how do you know what’s good?  I have no idea, but here’s some of what appealed to me as I waded through those 40+ pages tonight (true confession:  I stopped after page 36):   Dreidel Tally Graphing Sheet Chanukah Matching Game (very simple memory game – I just wasted the last of my printer ink printing these ones out…) “My Menorah” Hebrew Song – cute and simple original song to the tune of LaKova Sheli  (but you have to know Hebrew) Simple preschool crafts: Six Interactive Chanukah Crafts A cute Chanukah Scavenger Hunt which would be good for a party, co-op, or anywhere you want a bunch of kids running around (not here, please!) Very sweet present-passing group game where kids sit in a circle, learn right from left, hear the Chanukah story AND get to keep their pr...

Yup, you heard me right.  I don’t hate Chanukah.  I don’t hate Christmas.  I don’t hate Los Posadas, or Kwanzaa, or Diwali, or anything else that people celebrate at this time of year. But I can’t stand the “genericization” of this whole bloody month, as you’ll know if you’ve been reading here for more than about ten minutes (sorry to any long-term readers who’ve heard it all before!). Look, it’s Chanukah right now.  I know that, and I guess – reluctantly – I like it.  And next week, it will be over, and I would ask that you pretty please not continue to acknowledge it or celebrate it in any way until next year at this time.  But no… and it’s particularly poignant in years like this one, where, because of the way the calendars line up, schools and the community around us will continue to “celebrate” Chanukah on our behalf at least until December 25th, if not right on through the entire month. And here’s how they do it: Yay!  A funny animated winte...

Chanukah presents for my sisters, as modelled by Ted (and yes, I’m Canadian, so 2 L’s really IS the correct spelling!): 1) Shark mitts for Sara.  These were going to be elephants, hence the grey, but then I remembered that she’s kind of sick of elephants.  Like if somebody figures out that you like orchids, say, or salt-and-pepper shakers, then they’re going to get you nothing but orchids or salt-and-pepper shakers for the rest of your life.  She’s probably not really sick of elephants, but I figured a new animal would be a nice change of scenery.  So… what else is grey?  After pondering sheep for a while and yawning tremendously at the idea of sheep mittens (cute, but blah), I realized that sharks were the very thing.  There was also a matching grey hat, but I don’t seem to have gotten a picture; it’s exactly the same as the one I made for Abigail in the picture below.  Oh, and I slipped a little elephant into one of the mitts – a quick project ( Per...