praying with children

this was about two weeks ago, saying our bedtime prayers. we told her to put her hands together and close her eyes. thankfully my phone was in my pocket; i have never pulled it out faster to take a picture! hence the terrible terrible quality ;)

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mark and i started saying nightly prayers before bed with norah about 2 or 3 weeks ago. we simply added a (very short) prayer into her bedtime routine, right after she gets her jammies on and right before daddy reads her stories. 

we keep it short and sweet since she can't seem to focus for very long. a quick "thank you Jesus for our family and for each other. thank You for the wonderful day we had. be with us tonight and as we go about our day tomorrow. help us keep You at the center of our family and our lives. Amen." usually works. something to that effect anyway.

the first night or two she had no clue what we were doing but now when we say "ok time to pray" she comes over to the glider where we all kneel down. she puts her hands together and closes her eyes peeks at us while mark or i say the prayer of the evening.

i don't really know if she has any clue. we try to encourage her to say a prayer but she just stares back at us, unsure of what we're asking. i don't doubt that she has been in the presence of God before but i think it's up to mark and i to help her understand it. we started praying with her now because we wanted her to get used to it and make it a daily part of her (and our!) life. we figured, the sooner the better. 

as she gets older we will be able to do more with her but for now this is good and it works. i was never introduced to God when i was young (except for mass on christmas and easter) so i don't really know what i'm doing! i don't know what the best, or even a mediocre, way of going about this is. all i can do is ask God for guidance and try to do what i think is best. 

do you pray with your kids? did your parents pray with you? how old were your kids/you when you started praying? were the kids/you receptive? what kind of prayers did you pray? any advice is welcome!