Question for Catholic moms with little kids and kids with special needs

[gatorsmom]

My family has been saying the rosary together in the evening since my youngest children, my twins, were 3 years old. Saying the full rosary while keeping the children from twisting, throwing or spinning their rosaries was nearly impossible. They got bored, restless and distracted the other kids who were managing to pay attention. It didn’t help that one of my twins has some special needs (ADHD and other disorders). So in an effort to keep them sitting still and being reverent, I kept it short. We sit in a circle and everyone takes a turn saying the next prayer that comes up on the rosary. Since my children are learning Latin at school and I know a second language, we say the prayers when it’s our turn, in whatever language we know. I keep it to a decade and end with the Divine Mercy prayer. This has worked well. The kids pay attention, they aren’t distracting each other and we are all learning the rosary in 3 languages.

The youngest kids are turning 8yo soon and have been doing well with this prayer quite a while. I’d like to say a longer prayer but not much longer. Can you tell me ways you have encouraged the family rosary in your home? How do you keep the littlest ones involved? Any suggestions you have are appreciated!

 

[St_Francis]

What we did was to have the Rosary be the very last thing we did before bedtime, so we would start off and as the younger ones became too tired to carry on (by decision or by decree ), they would quietly give people a kiss and then go to bed.

 

[pensmama87]

Why I Bother With the Rosary

Can You Pray the Rosary with Little Kids in the House?

These are good blog posts I read recently on the subject.

We don’t pray the rosary super frequently as a family, though we do evening prayer together. Our expectations for prayer time basically line up with our expectations for them at Mass - our 2 year old is expected to be quiet but can wander around a little bit, and he contributes his own prayer intentions (which can be very cute). Our 4 year old is expected to sit still and say the prayers he knows in addition to what our 2 year old does. It’s about 15 minutes.

We recently did a “chocolate chip rosary” to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The kids were very, very excited about that.

 

[holyrood]

I’ve been saying the Rosary with my kids since my oldest ones were about 7 and 9, and since I had five kids. The oldest are now 26 and 24, and there are 9 kids now.

We used to say the full five decades nightly. However, now we say only a decade, and due to various circumstances, we’re not as consistent as we used to be, but are now back to saying it together two or three nights a week.

We also took turns having kids lead Hail Marys, and said it at bedtime. Often, the younger kids would fall asleep to the Rosary.

I also have twins with ADHD and on the autism spectrum. It’s probably the main reason we dropped to one decade. I think it helps to keep them involved by assigning one of them to lead the prayers or choose people to say each Hail Mary. I can only say, they have hardly been perfect little angels every night, but years of sticking with it are paying off, and I think the overall effect keeps them very aware that faith and God are at the center of our lives. As I see my older kids continue to go to church on their own and value faith and morality, I believe all those Rosaries made the difference.

 

[mommy_k]

We have put together a rosary kit for our youngest in their own bag. The bag has a rosary, loose pictures downloaded of the mysteries (one on each page) , prayer books, chaplets and their rosaries.

The children can take out their pictures and look at them while they pray.

Perhaps you can also lead them in The Little Crown too.

 

[jmj777]

We pray a decade everyday before we homeschool. We have everyone name which mystery is for the day and then the five mysteries applicable. We also include our Morning Offering and everyone prays for a special intention. When someone can’t think of a particular intention, we automatically offer it for the poor souls in Purgatory.

Out of my four children, my second child has autism with a severe developmental delay. He’s 13 and can say the Hail Mary, Glory be, and the Fatima Prayer… We’re working on him learning the Hail Holy Queen and the “Oh God, whose only begotten son…” It’s beautiful to see a nonverbal, autistic child recite, along with his siblings, the most beautiful prayers knowing it goes from his lips straight to God’s ear!

By the way, I can’t help but relate to my son the beatitude that says “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.” How awesome!

Happy All Souls’ Day!

Peace.

+JMJ+