Praying the Rosary as a family is a distinct mark of Catholic family life. It ought to be a "pillar" of every Catholic family in their daily life, as best as each family possibly can.
For those of us with children (especially young children), yours truly could give you a whole list of ideas why praying the Rosary with little children is impractical, difficult, hopeless and downright frustrating at times. (Trust me!! We have totally been there...still are...but we just keep on trucking, right??)
But let's start on a positive note. Let's begin with the reasons why we ought to. Our Lady appeared to St. Dominic during the 13th century, a time when the Albigensian heresy plagued southern France. This heresy essentially believed that the material world is bad (including the human body) and the spiritual world was good. This obviously lead to the heretics denying Christ's Sacred Humanity and Incarnation, His Resurrection and Ascension; it lead to condemning beautiful things such as marriage and the Sacraments as well as other established practices and beliefs of Christianity at that time. (Remember, the Sacraments are an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace. The outward sign used is matter - i.e. baptism uses water, confession uses the instrument of the priest, the Holy Eucharist uses bread and wine, and so on. Albigensians hated the material world).
Our Lady appeared to St. Dominic to fight this heresy and gave him the Rosary, which would be his "weapon" to convert the heretics. (Now I am simplifying the story a bit, but you can easily search the internet or YouTube to learn more). With the Rosary, she left him fifteen promises for those who say it. One of the promises she told St. Dominic was that "whatever you ask in the Holy Rosary shall be granted."
Little side story, you probably have not heard Bill and I's conversion story. But one thing I did during the time we were broken up - prior to our simultaneous conversions - was FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I prayed a Rosary - all 20 decades! - with the intention that Bill and I would be back together again. I remember doing this in the backseat of the van while my parents were driving us out to watch my sister play in a volleyball tournament. I remember fumbling awkwardly through the beads and constantly referring to a little pamphlet I had so I could pray it the right way (I really had no clue what I was doing). I'm pretty sure I did not pray in the right way, but everyone has to start somewhere! The outcome of my prayer intention? Well...I think you know. ;)
Ok, those fifteen promises of why we have to get on that family Rosary (apart from the simple fact that our Blessed Mother has asked us to do this to save sinners and pray for their conversions to Christ).
Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces.
I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
The Rosary will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish.
Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.
Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenititude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
I shall deliver from Purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.
You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.
All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
All who recite the Rosary are my sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters of my only Son Jesus Christ.
Devotion of my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
These are beautiful promises! I really could go on and on about the promises and explain them but I divert from the purpose of this post.
What some people may not realize is that the Rosary is a contemplation of the life of Christ with Mary, His Mother.
Mary lived with her eyes fixed on Christ, treasuring his every word: “She kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19; cf. 2:51). The memories of Jesus, impressed upon her heart, were always with her, leading her to reflect on the various moments of her life at her Son’s side. In a way those memories were to be the “rosary” which she recited uninterruptedly throughout her earthly life…
The Rosary, precisely because it starts with Mary’s own experience, is an exquisitely contemplative prayer. Without this contemplative dimension, it would lose its meaning, as Pope Paul VI clearly pointed out: “Without contemplation, the Rosary is a body without a soul, and its recitation runs the risk of becoming a mechanical repetition of formulas, in violation of the admonition of Christ: ‘In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think they will be heard for their many words’ (Mt 6:7).
[St. Pope John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae]
With that said, praying the Rosary with your children is WORTH THE BATTLE AND FRUSTRATION. At the same time, you don't want to be yelling at your kids during this intimate time of prayer and establishing this devotion (but honestly, it happens!). ...The kids making goofy faces at each other, whining about the other person's toe touching their leg, wanting to interrupt to ask you to get this or that, someone giving a stare down to another sibling just to be annoying, farting, laughing, falling asleep (oh, that's just me sometimes *sigh*), and yeah you get the picture. Do NOT picture that sweet ideal of little children kneeling with hands perfectly folded facing the crucifix - NOT WITH LITTLE KIDS. Just push that picture out of your head right now. This is reality. We have little human people affected and damaged by original sin. It's all an exercise of patience on our end, really.
Here's some quick tips I can share that perhaps maybe you'll find helpful:
If you're a bigger-sized family with little children like us, I recommend you DON'T use Rosary coloring pages and the like. I remember so many times scouring the internet for ideas "to keep little hands busy" while we pray a Rosary. It all sounded so great in theory. No. Let me tell you - the kids just always fought over the colored pencils and crayons, crayons intersected into another person's "coloring space" which lead to fighting or distraction, etc... So now there's none of that. We just flat out pray the Rosary without all those extra "toys" and "trinkets" and "crafty things." (Honestly, that's just been our experience, but you can try it for yourselves...maybe your kids are calmer?)
Bill came up with the great idea of the older kids doing "shift work" with the toddler. Because really, it's the toddler (Luke) that lends the most distraction to the other siblings - doing a goofy dance, running and jumping on people, etc... So now, when it's family Rosary time, instead of dealing with that or strapping him down on our laps (while we sweat it out with him wriggling like a walrus), one of his older brothers or sister will go to the bottom floor of our home and play with him. Then the next day, it's another sibling's turn. It has really helped the family Rosary become less stressful and on top of that the toddler gets special one-on-one time with his brother or sister.
You can always put the littler ones down early for bedtime and pray it with the rest of the family after.
Don't get frustrated about toddlers and little ones not wanting to participate or getting so distracted. It's normal. I think the most important thing is for them to see Dad and Mom devoted and attentive to their Rosary. Sometimes I just have to keep my eyes closed and flat out ignore some things and "pretend I don't see it."
Create a different but simple atmosphere when you pray - dim the lights, light a candle, go before a special statue, etc...
Try to kneel. Posture really does make a difference. But we often do it sitting down together too. I do notice a difference in the attention the kids will give if Bill and I are kneeling though.
Finally, while we don't like extra "things" to help the kids pray during the Rosary (because it just always ends up as a stressful distraction!), I do think children's Rosary meditation books help. I think using even a single Scripture verse or sacred art as a way to help them meditate on the mystery is so great, especially for younger kids.
So, with that being said, here's some Rosary books I could recommend:
A Little Catholics First Rosary Book is a sweet and simple introduction to the Rosary for little ones. I actually see my little ones (preschool-ish age) grab it out of our book basket to look at during various times of the day. I like that they tend to "gravitate" toward it. What I like about this is that it gives one simple Scripture verse to read aloud to think about during that mystery of the Rosary. Holy Heroes has a set of these available for each mystery of the Rosary.
The Holy Rosary and the Scriptural Rosary for Children are from the St. Joseph Picture Books series. I think every Catholic mom has these for their children, haha.
The last one pictured above, The Rosary in Art for Children, is a hidden gem I found and I could only order it from Amazon (go figure...). But I love that it offers a picture of sacred art, a Scripture verse and a brief meditation with prayer. It's perfect for that age when your child can read because it aids them along in the meditation.
Finally, there's an awesome set of books called The Illuminated Rosary. When we pray the Rosary, this is the book our children will go to pick up the most because it contains a picture of sacred art for every Hail Mary in the mystery. The kids will really fix their eyes on these pictures and look at them...
The Illuminated Rosary set has a short prayer to be said at the beginning of each decade, but the focus seems to be to help one meditate on the mystery of the Rosary through the sacred art. Even adults will find it helpful!
Do I expect the kids to be looking at the precise picture for the mystery of the Rosary we are saying? No. I just let them look and enjoy. As their hearts and minds are pondering and observing the life of Christ through the art - even if they sometimes end up going silent here and there on the Hail Mary's - I'm ok with that. They'll come back to the vocal prayer and realize they're not saying it (or we'll tell them haha), but really it's the meditation - the mental prayer - that's the "soul" of the Rosary.
I hope this helps you. And if you haven't started to the pray the Rosary together as a family, hopefully you'll consider it...we are quarantined after all! ;)
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