What’s the big deal? 
How does one pray with littles? It can be intimidating to begin doing! They are loud, they don’t focus, they don’t know the words and overall… it’s stressful. Why do it?
Because it’s our job.
So, let’s make it easier!
When I started praying with my littles, I wasn’t sure where to begin. My three year old is a maniac 99% of the time, how could I possibly pray with him? We prayed before every meal, and bedtime, but most of the time he was wiggling, and wasn’t necessarily… Present. I wanted him to learn the prayers to the Rosary especially, and but getting him to pray for 15 to 20 minutes? That seemed daunting.
Until I leaned into it.
Jesus loved little children, especially when they climbed all over Him right? We don’t skip Mass because of wriggles or sounds, do we?
So why not pray with our littles even when they are wriggling and making sounds?
Here are some tips to praying with your littles:
- Start simple: maybe a morning offering, a decade of the Rosary, sing the prayers (make up the tune or look one up!)
- Build it into a routine: kids thrive on routine. In school, sports practices, music lessons, they have routines built in. Their spiritual life could be the same! Start of routine of praying the same prayer at the same time of day, every day.
- Find a recording of prayers: Youtube has thousand of Catholic prayers recorded, often time with spiritual art to meditate or speak about after praying! I also like listening to Spotify while we pray, that way the kids are able to move and wriggle and they still are hearing their prayers, and I can pray along with it. I love this spotify recording of the Rosary.
- Pick fun ones to teach them! We love “St. Anthony, St. Anthony, please come around, something has been lost and needs to be found.” My 3 year old already has it memorized. Which says a lot about our house, honestly.
- Just relax, lean into the crazy, and remember that God loves little children. Their movement, their noises, their energy, doesn’t make God love them less.
Most importantly remember…
Your teaching your children the importance of prayer, and talking to God, is more important than their ability to focus on the prayers. You are their first teacher. You are the person they will look to emulate or stray from.
Let’s give them something to emulate.
Praying for you.