October is one of my FAVORITE months. The cool weather, cozy sweaters, changing colors 🍁 - I just love it all. I love it so much that my only real ‘requirement’ when my husband proposed was that we have an October wedding. Of course we live in the Midwest and planned ahead for an October wedding that ended up 75 and sunny, with no leaves having changed much in color yet 🤦🏼‍♀️

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But another reason I love October is because it’s the month of the Holy Rosary! If I’m being honest, I didn’t have a true devotion to the rosary until college. We prayed as a family growing up, but it wasn’t always the rosary and so I didn’t fully appreciate the powerhouse of prayer it truly is. Then I went to Franciscan University and joined a household (think religious sorority) and one of our weekly commitments was Sunday night rosary as a group. WOAH did that change things for me. Sometimes we would pray the rosary “straight up” as I affectionately started calling it 😆 and other times we would sing it or pray a scriptural rosary. My eyes were opened to the beauty of meditative prayer through the intercession of Our Mother.

But I have to be honest, again, and admit that praying the rosary regularly became harder once little kids entered the picture. As a family with a 7 and 9 year old right now we try to commit to at least a decade a day, but that looks way different for us now than it did when we had babies. I wish we had set a better example of praying the rosary with them back then, even if they had no idea what was going on. I didn’t realize how much that could’ve helped establish the routine for them in future. Plus! It really didn’t matter if they weren’t actively participating, they would have had this beautiful exposure to prayer that also provided calm time before bed.

Now I’m not saying we never prayed with them, but the rosary specifically could have happened a lot more, I think I was just scared of how that would go with 2 under 2! So if you’re in that boat where a family rosary seems intimidating, my hope is that this list of tips can be helpful! In addition to some things I have come up with, I have asked trusted friends who are currently parenting ages 0-12 what things they recommend to make the time fruitful. AND something you look forward to, instead of something you dread or fear. With that being said, here we go!

🙏 Tips for Praying the Rosary as a Family (especially if you have littles!)

Now I can attest that many of these things are still very helpful if you don’t have littles currently! We have a room in our house that is always the prayer room (now that they can sit through it) and in one corner we have baskets of Saint peg dolls and holy cards and a hook for our rosaries. This is like my version of a rosary basket and the kids love picking from a myriad of rosaries each night.

I also think it’s very important for kids to truly KNOW what the rosary is and the impact it’s had on countless people! Once my kids were old enough to understand the stories, I started telling them any and every one I could think of: Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Fatima, stories of saints who loved the rosary, etc. I think it made the prayer feel more special to them because they could (at least somewhat) grasp the magnitude and history of this beautiful meditation!

With October fast approaching I am excited to tell my kids (who love history lately) about the Battle of Lepanto and how the rosary saved thousands of lives, which led to a feast being dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary. If that is something you think your kids would appreciate, then print off these read alouds and have fun telling the stories to your kiddos! Maybe you could even pair it with a make your own rosary craft or coloring page!

Back when I was still teaching in a private school we had this amazing rosary initiative for the whole school where the kids would essentially get sponsored (a dollar a day) to commit to praying a decade or full rosary every day in the month of October and then all the money raised went to charity. Our first year doing this was a TREMENDOUS success and we raised over 9 thousand dollars! Deo Gratias!

I share this story not so that you feel like you need to start a rosary challenge of your own, but because it taught me something…you see each student was encouraged to “track” the rosaries they prayed and for many it felt like a real accomplishment when they could check off a day! Some even said a rosary EVERY single day during October! My own children were even more motivated to pray just so that they could check off the day ✅ The power of accountability!

Which brings me to the next printable you’ll find included here! It’s a tracker for praying throughout the month of October! And that’s really what I hope this October Rosary tracker—and this whole list of ideas—can help with. Not checking a box because we’re trying to be the “perfect Catholic family,” but creating a little bit of accountability and encouragement to make the Rosary a regular part of our family life.

Because here’s the thing I’ve learned and will continue to share: it doesn’t have to be perfect to be fruitful. Maybe you only make it through a decade. Maybe someone is coloring, someone is wandering around the room, and someone is asking for a snack halfway through. Maybe you miss a day (or several!). That doesn’t mean you’ve failed. You simply start again.

What matters is that our children see us turning to Mary in prayer. They hear the Hail Mary. They learn the mysteries. They begin to recognize that the Rosary is something our family does—not because we have everything perfectly together, but because we know we need God’s grace and Our Lady’s intercession.

So this October, whether you pray one decade a day, a full Rosary every night, or simply make an effort to pray together a little more often, I hope you’ll join me in giving the Rosary a little more space in your family’s life.

Print the tracker, grab some rosaries, gather the kids, and give it a try! And if your toddler throws a rosary across the room five minutes in…well, welcome to family prayer. 😂

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us! ❤️

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Three read-aloud stories (the Battle of Lepanto, the Children of Fatima, and St. Dominic & Our Lady of the Rosary), three full-page sacred art prints, and a 30-day Rosary challenge tracker—all free inside the Catholic Creativity Corner, along with saint coloring pages, crafts, and feast day activities for every season.

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