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Daily Rosary with Little Children

Lately my husband and I have been trying very hard to have our family say our Daily Rosary, as Our Blessed Mother has asked on so many occasions. This proves very difficult with my husband in school two nights a week, and with out little boys who are 4, 2 and 1. For example, in order to get through the Rosary tonight, my husband sat on the couch with the 4 and 2 year olds, and I had to sit on the floor with the Baby while he continually put a baseball down my shirt (to see it come out the bottom) and put a cup on my head like a hat--I had to keep him quiet!

I know that Our Lord and Our Lady our pleased at our attempts, but it seems like there is rarely a night where we actually feel like we're "getting" anything out of our Rosary. It just doesn't feel like we're doing it in a pleasing manner. It's all I can do to remember what Mystery we're on, let alone reflect on the Mysteries.

I don't know if I'm looking for tips, advice, or just encouragement? Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thank you!

Tags: children, rosary

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Permalink Reply by Kara McLaren on June 9, 2010 at 2:51pm

It seems as if they are not really getting anything out of it then it may be that they are to young. Maybe you could bring prayer down to their level. You don't want them to dislike prayer time or to think of it as a chore. Maybe you could cut the amount of Hail Mary's down to two or three per mystery instead of ten. Or maybe you could have them do just one of the mysteries instead of all five.
Or have the two older ones do one each.
Or perhaps just pray the Rosary once a week. Although, I think that they are awful young for even that.
I have to give you praise for doing this with your boys.
I will say a prayer for you.

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Permalink Reply by Carol on June 12, 2010 at 2:18am

Jessica,

Sorry to be so late to this discussion, but I want to encourage you to keep trying to find what works. We have been doing a nightly rosary with our kids (8,6,3) for two years now. This is from my recent blog post about it: "One thing we had to get our heads around at first was that when we do the rosary with little ones we have to roll back our expectations for our own meditation and remember that the kids are learning how to say the prayers, to remember the names of the mysteries, and to be quiet through prayer time. That being said, we do a short rosary---" Read the rest here.

Hope it helps!
Carol

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Permalink Reply by Jen Stoddard on June 15, 2010 at 3:58pm

I am beginning this tonight actually, so we are in it together! I have a 7, 4 and 18mo and I know we will struggle the first couple of nights. It's change for them and that will take adjustment. I have a big rosary for the 4yo and a normal sized one for the older one. The 18mo will *hopefully* nurse through it.

We are in this for our families!

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Permalink Reply by will varicak on June 17, 2010 at 1:33pm

My children are 15, 10, 8 and 2. We have been saying one decade of the rosary each night for about 8 years now. We make this our nightly bedtime prayer. First we go around and say our intentions then begin. After we get through the Creed, Our Father and First three Hail Mary's we choose a mystery. First we talk about all the Mysteries for that day. For instance we always say the Glorious Mysteries on Sunday. The children learn all the decade's Mysteries for that day but we choose only one to say the ten Hail Mary's with. My eight year old son's favorite is Pentecost!!
When we first started we lit candles. As a reward the children got to blow them out at the end of the rosary. It was a nice incentive to try and behave. Some nights are better than others but the graces have been abundant for persevering through the years.

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Hadley on October 28, 2010 at 12:14pm

I'm new here, but this thread immediately attracted my attention. SO much good advice. What I've been doing with my two girls (4, 6) is doing two decades with them and letting each of them lead one, then I finish it myself after I tuck them in. I love the ideas of the colouring pages and stuff though, I think that might get them to sit through the whole thing. It's actually the 6 year old who's the main issue. I swear the other one is going to be a nun! :D