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MichelleW
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| Posted: April 26 2006 at 2:51am | IP Logged
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My children have each just received their first rosaries (they will be receiving First Communion this Sunday), and they are all so excited! How did you start to teach your children the rosary? My kids are 8 and under, and I don't want to overwhelm them, but to encourage them. I thought about starting with the Divine Mercy Chaplet (I know we are a little late, but I figured it was ok) since the prayers are shorter and less "controversial" for dh. Any thoughts?
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tracym
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| Posted: April 26 2006 at 4:59am | IP Logged
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This year one of the things we have been doing is(trying) to say a daily decade of the rosary in the morning with our morning prayers. The kids seem to look forward to it now and we talk at the beginning about which decade we'll be doing. Anyways for us this seemed a good way to introduce it without it being to overwhelming for everybody. I hope to increase what we say eventually but for now this works nicely. The kids can follow along with a book or pamplet from church. Also te 3rd grade CHC lessons have pictures to make a project with.
Tracy M.(mom to ds9, dd6. ds4, and ds1)
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marihalojen
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| Posted: April 26 2006 at 7:19am | IP Logged
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When I started teaching my daughter the rosary we used an on-line rosary that showed a picture for every bead or every mystery. It really helped focus on the meditations and not just the words we were saying. Picture Beads is one such site, there are many, try a variety to find one that is a good fit for your family.
She and I also varied the places we'd pray the rosary, at churches, in the Mary Garden, in the car...
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The Mari Hal-O-Jen
SSR = Sailing, Snorkling, Reading
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Christine
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| Posted: April 26 2006 at 8:06am | IP Logged
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My husband and I started praying the Rosary together when we were dating, actually before we were dating. I met my husband at a young adult group to which my brother took me.
When our first child was about 1, we had her kneel down with us and we prayed 1 decade of the rosary together. Pretty soon, she was asking to lead the rosary. Our little ones are required to say 1 decade with us. They enjoy being able to lead the rosary. After the rosary, the children each say their "Dear little Jesus" prayers (a tradition from my childhood). This is their time to offer their own prayers. With my first two children I modeled the "Dear little Jesus" (little refers to Jesus as a child or baby) prayer, by saying my own. I varied the prayer each night, but I always ended with, "Thank you for all that You do. I love You." My children all do the same. We turn the lights off while we pray and light a candle for each child to blow out when we are finished praying (the candles are not lit during Lent).
Leading the rosary, saying their own prayers and blowing out a candle seem to be great motivators in our house.
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Christine
Mommy to 4 girls, 5 boys, & 2 in God's care
Memories of a Catholic Wife and Mother
Pretty Lilla Rose
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farmgirls
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| Posted: April 27 2006 at 6:58am | IP Logged
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We bought a set of pictures of the Mysteries of the Rosary from CHC at the beginning of the school year. Each week we put a different mystery in a picture frame on our prayer table. During Advent we followed the Joyful Mysteries, Lent, Sorrowful and now we are on the Glorious. My oldest daughter reads a meditation on the mystery when we are on the Our Father bead. Slowly, so as not to overwhelm them, we are adding a prayer to learn at the end of the rosary.
This year we have really tried to start each school day with prayer time. I usually light candles in appropriate Liturgical colors to start off the session.(If they behave the treat is to blow out a candle.) When we started, I stayed with the Creed and the three Hail Marys and one decade and worked out the kinks as they are always very concerned which bead we are on. With all the distractions they lose their places all the time.
One interesting addition this year was 10 minutes of assigned silent prayer following our Rosary and morning prayer. A friend of mine does this with her kids and I thought it sounded kind of "strict." But I decided to try it and my kids love it. My oldest dd has finished entire rosaries on her own and I read religoius books to my two preschoolers while the other two are praying. It has been beautiful.
HTH,
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ALmom
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| Posted: April 28 2006 at 12:00am | IP Logged
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Join a family with older kids on occassion - my dc, especially my younger boys imitated those big, teenage boys that were praying the rosary.
We also begin with a single decade (one mystery) and build gradually. We and older ones pray out loud, but do not mind the littlers drifting in and out. We use the pictures, light a candle (the dc like to stick around to blow out candle) and gradually the youngers join in. Usually they ask to lead before they are ready, but we allow them to "lead" with a sibling who already knows how.
Also pray the prayers very slowly so they have a chance to process it. It takes forever this way - so we don't often do all in one day - except for a full set of 5 mysteries on Sunday (other days it might just be the first sorrowful mystery). We pick according to the season or according to what we have been studying in religion.
Patience, expecting a certain amount of distraction, etc. Our dc also like the choice of a rosary. We have a variety of special and plastic rosaries from which they can choose. They generally learn the prayers before they learn to keep track on their beads but that's OK too.
We have the littlest turn the page to the next picture in our rosary book - it is a bound set of 8 1/2 X 11 pictures of the rosary that we had laminated. It can be stood on end. We got it from Mother of Our Saviour. It has meditations in it but with little ones we generally just meditate ourselves on this as we pray as the littles wouldn't follow or last that long. We generally just announce the mystery and the fruit we are praying for. Sometimes we might elicit a simple reflection from one of the dc or offer a simple meditation ourselves (something very short and appropriate for the attention span of 3 yo).
Occasionally for variety we will do a rosary with a video. Mother Angelica has some on EWTN that we use. We don't like this as much, but there were times when it helped us get started. There is one that is in the holy land and our dc liked that one a lot - seeing the places of Jesus's life. We have someone pray with the leader on the tape to help make it more personal. It just goes much faster than either of us are comfortable with.
We are not great rosary prayers - ie we do not get to it everyday but are striving to do better. However, our 6 yo and older all know how to pray the rosary at least in a group - with the 6 yo only needing occassional prompts. I'm sure if we just did it everyday, our 3yo would soon have it down as far as format. Somehow, our lady fills in the meditation aspects with the little, innocent souls, if we will just do it. Our 3 yo has developed such a devotion for our lady (appropriate, of course to a 3 yo)and I really think it is from the atmosphere of praying the rosary, having statues and pictures and offering little one line reflections or grasping teachable moments from time to time. We do always take our rosaries into our storm shelter with us during Tornado warnings.
Janet
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Helen
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| Posted: April 28 2006 at 6:40am | IP Logged
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When I was making the rounds with specialists: occupational, physical, speech… They used the word “modeling”. I was supposed to model behavior I want to see in my children. When I attended a homeschool seminar by Penny Gardner, she advised us to keep a nature journal, keep a copy book, read books – model the behavior you want to see in your children.
I think this is also the best advice as far as the spiritual life of your children. The best way to teach children to pray is for the parents to pray. Prayer is a gift from God;it is speaking with God. The Lord is always the initiator with His children. If we want to speak with Him, we have to ask for the gift of prayer. No spiritual gift is given without first requesting it from God.
I love the Rosary. I have loved the Rosary for years. I wouldn’t want to miss a day. (This is partly because I am convinced of its power.) Enthusiasm is bred through study and practice. Personally, I found the story of Fatima truly inspiring. (EWTN FATIMA) (The Book: Fatima from the Beginning, by Fr. John De Marchi) Perhaps a good biography of St. Dominic or Bl. Bartolo Longo. EWTN Document Libraryhas many of the papal documents. Pope Leo XIII wrote (at my count) at least 8 documents on the Rosary. Read for yourself. Pray for yourself. Pray to love the rosary. Make a commitment for the benefit of your family to pray the Rosary every day, no matter what happens! (I’m afraid to say, that if you make a commitment to pray the Rosary, you will experience trials to prevent your saying it. Be courageous and faithful to your promise. God cannot be outdone in generosity and you too will be convinced of the power of the Rosary.)
I have a new post at my blog about the Rosary.
Christocentricty of the Rosary Part I
An older post:
Rosary stands in a league of its own
Fatima Notebook
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Ave Maria!
Mom to 5 girls and 3 boys
Mary Vitamin & Castle of the Immaculate
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Teaching the Rosary
