For today’s spotlight, we have The Catholic Woodworker, Spiritual Weapons built for battle. Jonathon makes these sweet, perfectly sized little prayer sets, beautiful rosaries, and gorgeous pocket crosses.

My husband recently switched jobs and brought home all that he’d collected on his previous office desk. When I showed him this little prayer sat, he said it was perfect desk size and that he’d had a beautiful funeral card on his desk for years, but no good way to display it – this is the solution!

This little prayer set is the perfect manly gift or small stocking stuffer for the guy who has everything. It comes with a couple holy cards, but obviously any holy card with fit perfectly.

The Catholic Woodworker also carries pocket crosses and beautiful rosaries!

You can find The Catholic Woodworker on Instagram and Facebook @TheCatholicWoodworker

The Catholic Woodworker is offering 20% off designer and custom rosaries with code Rosary20 .

Up next on our holiday gift giving spotlight series is Blessed Friends Forever (they’re your BFFs!). Marie draws and designs these sweet little pillows herself. I just love that she is having custom fabric produced, so she can sew up these little pillows. Custom fabric is something I’ve dreamed of, but never tried.

These sweet little pillows are just the right size for children to cuddle. Marie has also just started make swaddle blankets and they look lovely.

Here’s what Marie has to say about her process and the drive behind her shop:

I love making these drawings because it has become therapeutic and very stress relieving. I also enjoy discovering more about saints, why they have the clothes they wear, what they are known for, and especially asking for their intercession as I make each saint. I have found great comfort drawing these saints and creating pieces with them for others to enjoy, mainly as pillow dolls. I’ve definitely learned to appreciate the craft of sewing while making these products as well (it isn’t easy)!

You can find Marie and all of her handmade goodies at Blessed Friends Forever! She’s also on Instagram @blessedfriendsforever

Along with the gift guides this month, I’ll have a number of posts highlighting some amazing mama made products. And many of these ladies have offered giveaway items for you, as well! Be sure to follow along, so you don’t miss out.

First up is Lobsters and Lollipops. I met Alyssa not too long ago and she’s a real gem! We have a very similar idea of what makes an awesome, imagination building toy, so when I saw her pegs dolls, I knew my girls had to have some. They’ve been tucked away in my closet for weeks now and I can’t wait for Christmas to give them to the girls.

And then! Alyssa offered to send me a set to review AND some pegs to giveaway! Her felt sets and sweet peg dolls are so cute. The felt sets are the perfect size and very sturdy. They’ll live up to kid abuse, all while growing the imagination of your little one.

She has mermaids and fairies, which was right up the alley of my girls loves! She has recently added St George and his dragon to her line up and it’s just darling. Blaise will most certainly be needing that set in a couple years.

I love that Alyssa started making toys just for her kids. She had a desire to minimize the toy box and her pegs were part of the solution! Clearly, all of her toys are kid tested, right in her own home.

::::CLOSED::::

Winner is Noreen!

{{{GIVEAWAY!!}}} Alyssa has generously offered two of her sweet mermaid- Fine and Flora – to one of you, my readers! One of you will win 2 hand painted mermaids and a wonderful little seashell felt home.

To enter:

Follow Alyssa on IG @lobstersandlollipopstoys and on Facebook @LobstersandLollipops

Follow me here on the blog and on IG @wildthings_adventures

Share this post on social media and TAG us both, for extra entries!

Come back here and comment to let me know what you’ve done!

{{{GIVEAWAY ends Sunday November 11 at NOON EST}}} Winner will be contacted via Instagram and announced here!

As our 2018 homeschooling year looms in my near future, I am sifting through books and lists and dreaming of field trips. I love peaking into everyone’s curriculum, so I thought I would share a bit of ours with you, too. (Last year’s can be found here.)

If you’ve written about your curriculm, link it below! All the homeschool mamas want to know!

We have four homeschoolers again this year, two high schoolers attending our local Catholic school, and we’ve added an infant, just to shake things up a bit. I envision many a read aloud with a baby on my hip, pacing the room as I read. It will be an adventure, but we wouldn’t have it any other way!

My oldest homeschooler will be in sixth grade this year. He needs to hit the writing and grammar hard, so we found Well Ordered Language to make that happen. I’ve used Primary and Intermediate Language Lessons in the past and while I love how sweet and gentle it is, I think we are ready for something a little more intense. He and Bella will do this program together.

For math, PeterXavier will again be using Teaching Textbooks. It was wonderful last year and we plan to just keep plugging along with it. It really removes the full pressure of math from my plate and allows me to focus on subjects that are more my strength. I am all for farming out my weaknesses! I still help him, but it’s not nearly what it once was. I am a huge Teaching Textbooks fan!

Bella will be in fifth grade this year and after an explosion in her reading ability, I anticipate this year being much differnt than years past. She spend her summer in the hammock devouring any book within reach, so I am thrilled with her reading foundation! If you have a struggling reader HAVE PATIENCE! It will all click and then she’ll take off at lightening speed.

Bella will also be using Teaching Textbooks this year and hitting that grammar and writing program with her brother. She will study theology from Faith and Life, as well as King of the Golden City, which we will all read aloud together. Our only sacrament this year is Grace’s confirmation, so home based theology will be pretty straightforward. We also hope to get To Hear His Voice, so that we can all preread the weekly readings to be prepared for Sunday. I know I need this as much as they do!

Avila will be in third grade and ALSO doing Teaching Textbooks. I was happy to be able to purchase level three from a friend and Avila is excited to have work on the computer. Silly girl. We use Math for a Living Education last year and really liked it. I may get one of their lower level books for Kateri. I’ll have her continue on through Primary Language Lessons for her grammar and pull some spelling list for her, as well.

Bella and PeterXavier will be taking a Botany class through the local university and we will supplement that at home. I picked up a book on botany experiments and we also grow so much in our regular life, that I think they’ll learn a ton without too much extra book work.

As a group, we will study American History. We’ve done tons of ancient history together and covered early American History last year, so it will be fun to continue that on. With many trips to St Louis this year, we have to chatted about westward expansion quite a bit. We also hope to take a trip east to see all of the historic sites at some point in the year. I picked up a few picture books at a library book sale and hope to try out American History Stories as well. We have tried other history text in the past, only to abandon them pretty swiftly. I’m hoping this method of picture books, one text, some fun read alouds, and hopefully some field trips will make it all work a little better.

I don’t have trouble getting any of the kids to read, so I don’t worry too much about assigning them books. PeterXavier hesitates to break out of his fantasy genre, though, and Bella is often just searching for a suggestion. I did “assign” them each one book per quarter to read and orally tell me about. PX got: Treasure Island, Little Woman, Robinson Crusoe, and The Scarlet Pimpernel. Isabella got: Pollyanna, Little Woman (into which she has already dived, anticipating a viewing of the movie with cousins soon!), Treasure Island, and The Little White Horse. These books are really just for fun!

I’m sure I’ve missed some things, but that’s a basic overview. Feel free to ask questions. I’d love to do a few more posts on the hows and whys of our schooling. Be sure to link your curriculum posts below, too!

I will do a post dedicated to PreK/Kindergarten soon. I am asked about this all the time! It may be short, though. We are big believers in play for the littlest ones.