Praying with Your Kids

One of the most beautiful prayers that our Catholic faith offers is the prayer of the Rosary. The blessings and promises that come from praying the Rosary as often as we can are very well worth the time and the effort that it requires. It can be difficult to pass on the joy of this type of prayer to our children. It does take awhile - about 20 minutes - to go through the Rosary. We don't want to hurry or rush through it because in doing so we will miss out on the time of reflection that takes us into the heart of the Gospel. Below I have a few tips that have worked very well for me and praying the rosary with my three children who are all under 5 years of age.

1.) Never force them, but always invite them to join in the prayer. If you force your children to pray with you at this young of an age, than they will have very negative feelings about the prayer. As much as we can we should try to help them associate praying the rosary with a time of joy. At the same time, we shouldn't assume that this is something that they don't want to be included in. Even if they have said no several times before, we should ask them each and every time we sit down to pray. By the age of 8 most children should be able to sit through praying the rosary, but before then just let it be up to them. You will be surprised at how often they decide on their own to join in.

2.) Teach them to say the prayers. They can't pray what they don't know! Start with one line at a time. I have also found that singing the Hail Mary and the Our Father can be a lot more fun for them.

3.) Practice. You can build up their ability to sit through a rosary by practicing and saying a few Hail Mary's or one decade of the rosary each day. Start with one Hail Mary and then add one more each day so that it will be a slow process for them.

4.) Explain. Talk to your children about the rosary, it's history, and why we pray it. Talk to them about the mysteries and read some of the Bible stories behind each one. Use your Bible to show them where the Hail Mary and the Our Father came from in scripture.

5.) Be dramatic. When you are praying the rosary, don't just mumble and quickly go through each of the mysteries. Retell the story in your own words, read something from a children's Bible, or read a simple reflection on each mystery. The more exciting and alive you make the story, the more engaged your children will be.

6.) Buy them a Kid Rosary. There is a wonderful rosary available for children. The beads are large, colorful, and not a choking hazard. You can keep this in a special spot so that they can get it when you sit down to pray the rosary. You could also take it to Mass with you on Sundays for them to hold.

7.) Print off some coloring sheets. There are some wonderful coloring sheets for praying the rosary available at no cost if you simply do a search for them. Just type in rosary coloring sheets for kids. You can make several copies and let them color in the beads as you go through the prayer.

8.) Have a rosary party! This is an event that could help make the praying the rosary a lot of fun. Invite several families over and pray a rosary together. Afterwards you could have pizza and some time for fellowship. This will help your kids to see that other kids are also praying the rosary. If you happen to know families with older children, they can be a very good example for little ones to see.

9.) Use online rosary tools. This is something my kids absolutely love! Again, do a simple search for online rosary. You will find that several sites come up. Many have videos of the Holy Land and music that plays in the background while you pray the rosary. My children love to sit and watch the videos as we pray the rosary. They are fascinated by the videos and often ask if we can pray the rosary just so they can watch!

10.) Be the example. If you pray the rosary often, your children will be intrigued by it. They will see your discipline and joy through praying the rosary and want to participate in that. Set a specific day and time each week that you will start to pray the rosary.

This is one of the most wonderful traditions that we can pass on to our children. With a little work and patience this will become a spiritual practice that the whole family can come to love and enjoy!