Prayer Time with Kids

I have always struggled to have a meaningful prayer time with Elizabeth. I know part of it is that she's young, but part of it is that I haven't figured out the best way to go about it. I keep trying, though, and some of my approaches have had success. Here are a few of the things I've tried:

• Introducing the prayer by saying, "We get to talk with God tonight, the Creator of the whole universe. What do you want to talk with Him about?"
• Praying "Thank You" prayers where we go back and forth saying what we're thankful for
• Confessing, "Oh, honey, I need to talk with God now. Will you join me?"
• Keeping a list of praise/worship songs that are meaningful to me so that I can use them and not forget the words. We take turns picking a song and singing together.
• Asking what we should pray about before starting to pray
• Working prayer into everyday life for owies, scares, bad dreams, car trips, etc.

Tonight I went about asking for prayer requests in a really grown-up way: "How can I pray for you tonight?" Then I helped with cues: "What should we thank God for? What do you need God's help with?" (This actually brought up an incident at school that I had not previously known about!) Then I suggested a few prayer requests that Elizabeth could pray for about Isaac and me. This led to one of our better prayer sessions together, so I wanted to share it with you, too!

I'm excited to work a better prayer routine into my preschool class when I return in the fall. I'll continue the rotating job of "Snack Pray-er" to encourage praying aloud in front of people, but I want to add in a time of sharing prayer requests and praying for each other. We might switch it up, but I've thought of making a "Prayer Tent" (a sheet over a table or two) to make a different, special place to pray. I also want to try "Prayer Pages," simplified journaling/drawing where we write down or draw our requests and go back later to see how God has been working.