Teaching Our Children to Pray

During Lent we are taking time as a part of our homeschooling to focus on the three areas of Lenten focus:  Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.  The first area that we have been focusing on is PRAYER!

 

First of all, at the beginning of Lent we all learned The Lent Song from Catholic Icing.  We love it because it was easy to learn and explains the meaning of Lent in easy ways for kids to understand!

 

"Prayer, Fasting, and Alms Giving,

We are meant, to repent.

40 days of sacrifice,

Being super, extra nice,

This is Lent.  This is Lent."

 

(Sung to the tune of Frere Jacques)

 

Our Regular Prayer Schedule is woven within our homeschool and daily schedule.  It usually looks like this:

• Morning:
• Mom:  Daily Readings, Spiritual Reading and Journaling (Usually about 30 minutes, hopefully before the kids wake up!)
• Family:  Morning Offering and Learning about the Saint of the Day (usually at the breakfast table)
• Afternoon:
• Angelus at Lunch Time
• Decade of the Rosary with Holy Heroes CD's after Homeschool and Nap Time
• Meal Times:
• Prayer Before and After meals
• Evening/Bedtime:
• Our Father/Hail Mary/Glory Be
• Prayers of Intention
• We are also adding the Daily Examen and Learning the Act of Contrition

Rosary Time:

We usually use our Little Oratory to say our family Decade of the Rosary with the Holy Heroes CD's.  We try to have the children sit on the church pew that we have in the space to help them learn how to sit still, practicing for Mass.  Our oldest son, who is 5 years old is getting very good at praying the Rosary including leading prayers.  Our little children 3 1/2 years and 1 1/2 years will most of the time hold their rosaries and our 3 year old knows all of his prayers as well.  The little ones are allowed to also use our Busy Bible during this time. 

 

 

We have been loving the Lacing Rosaries from Catholic Inspired which were just released!  They are so fantastic in helping keep little hands busy and also help them learn the mysteries of the Rosary.  There are different options to use all of the mysteries together and on that one I put different colors of string starting at the Our Father for each decade so they can follow along easier "Now we start with the Yellow string with the Second Decade, etc".  During Lent we have been focusing on really learning and meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries as well.

 

 

We also use the Sacred Art Series Rosary Flip Book to help meditate on the different Mysteries of the Rosary.  I feel like it really helps for our children to have a visual image to look at as they are listening to and praying the Rosary. 

This week we also did this wonderful activity learning how to pray the Examen, recommended to us by a friend from the 40 ideas for 40 Days.  This was a great way to add a new prayer with our little children!

Praying the Daily Examen:

For this activity you take a DVD and start a movie keeping the sound muted.  Then you ask your children to PAUSE, REWIND, FAST FORWARD and STOP the DVD to learn about what these actions mean.  Then we talk about how all of these actions can apply to our prayer lives.

• We need to PAUSE to remember God's presence in our lives
• We need to REWIND and FAST FORWARD to recall what has taken place in our day and what is to come.
• Then we need to STOP to do the Daily Examen and ask for help with what lies ahead. 

To do the Daily Examen you:

• Sit quietly with the lights dim and possibly candles lit (We did this activity in Our Little Oratory)
• Ask the Holy Spirit to help them PAUSE and be still
• Help them REWIND to go back over their day and be thankful for God's blessing in their lives
• FAST FORWARD through their day and recall the moments of blessings, moments of joy and moments of sadness, difficulty or possible sin.
• Ask for forgiveness in any moments of fault.
• Ask the Holy Spirit to help them STOP and look forward to the rest of the day and new day to come tomorrow.
• Finish with the Lord's Prayer.

Find the entire activity and a PDF print-out HERE!

Stations of the Cross

We also added praying the Stations of the Cross on Fridays during Lent in our home and our children have LOVED it so much that they have been asking to listen to the Holy Heroes CD on other nights before bedtime as well!  Stay tuned for an entire post on how our Lenten intentions are going and praying Stations of the Cross with children! 

Stations of the Cross in Our Little Oratory

Tips for Adding Prayers to Daily Life with Little Ones:

• We say a LOT of our prayers at the kitchen table; the Morning Offering & story of the Saint of the Day at breakfast, the Angelus at Lunch, the prayers Before & After Meals.  We find that when the children are sitting at the table and have food it is much easier to keep their attention at a young age.
• Create a prayer space or a Little Oratory.  Our children know that our Little Oratory is a quiet place and a place for prayer. They know that when they enter what the expectations are and it is easier to control behavior.  Even if it is a corner of a room, etc it helps to define space for prayer.  Read this book to learn more about The Little Oratory and lots of great ideas of how to incorporate prayer into your home!
• Light a candle!  Kids LOVE candles and they really help keep their attention and make prayer time a special time!  Also, little kids love to blow out candles!  Sometimes we light and then blow out candles before and after each prayer.
• Start small and add a little at a time.  Do not expect your children to sit through an entire Rosary on your first attempt!  Make small goals and do not be afraid by set backs!  God is so pleased by each small step.
• Pray for your children and let them see you take time to pray during your day!  Children learn by example.

Reflection:

Dear God, Thank you for our children.  May we love them and teach them about your love through prayer.  Watch over us as parents and help to guide and strengthen us each day with patience and love and guide the hearts and minds of our children.  Amen.

One of my favorite verses about prayer is the following:

Philippians 4:6-7

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.