And what brings you to that is the right way for you. The key in teaching your children to pray, says Sr. Halpin, who directs a prayer room at St. Augustine Grade School in Kalamazoo, is to teach them that God is, that God loves them, and they're absolutely safe being honest with God. Janet Schaeffler finds that many people who take prayer seriously and share faith as a family are devising their own prayer rituals and prayers, times together that are very prayerful, very sacred for them, which they do at special times or on a daily basis. One family she knows uses a simple ritual of beginning their dinner with traditional prayer, and ending it with family members' own prayers of petition or thanksgiving.
Some families also have blessings at other times.
Schaeffler remembers her dad gathering the family in a circle, sprinkling them with holy water, and asking God's blessing for the night ahead and the next day. It doesn't always even have to be tracing the Sign of the Cross on the forehead. But there are all different ways of doing it. Some families use Sunday's Scripture readings and take time, perhaps on Friday or Saturday, to read them and talk about that they mean. Both religious educators have also used different prayer styles with children, including meditation, and found that children even as young as kindergarten can do them.