October: Month of the Rosary

October is dedicated to the rosary.  The rosary is not just for catholics!  Many protestants also see the beauty of this ancient prayer.  If you are unfamiliar with the rosary, here is a brief description.

A couple of years ago we started praying a portion of the rosary in the morning before our school day starts.  While we only pray a decade of the rosary each day, it still gives the kids an opportunity to become familiar with the various prayers as well as the mysteries for each day.  Although a decade doesn't take very long, it still seems to be a challenge for my kids to sit still.

I made this simple book a couple of years ago and it has held up well, we still use it each morning.

I printed out the prayers and used google image to find the appropriate picture to correspond to the mystery. 

I took it to a copy store and had it laminated with a heavier lamination than I have at home and had it spiral bound.

My readers can follow along if they choose, and my non-readers can easily identify the different mysteries.

I made up a second book to be used in a more hands on way.  I glued the images to index cards and had them laminated.  It then can be used as more of a matching game.  The mysteries are on the left side and then they can look through the images and find the ones that match, and place them in the proper order on the right side.

In another effort to make it more hands on for the younger children, I had crocheted roses made.  Red roses for them to use to count the Hail Mary's, the white rose is used for the Our Father.  I will admit sometimes the kids (boys!) end up throwing the roses at each other instead of using them properly - but I'm sure your kids would never do such a thing!  It's not perfect, but it has become a good habit for our day and eventually we will be at a point where we can all sit still for the entire rosary.

Here are a few more resources:

Rosary Lapbook - this would be a great, month long project

History of the Rosary

Rosary notebooking pages

Rosary coloring pages

What is your favorite rosary help?