Teaching kids to pray

Two weeks ago we began my oldest children's "official" catechism lessons. Until that point, we just tried to teach them the faith via sensory activities and moral teachings, but now we are teaching them the actual Catechism, bit by bit, via the CLAA's Catechism I course (this is for my five and four year old.)
Two things occurred to me when we started. First, that Catechism was not something I had officially "learned" as a child because my faith formation basically consisted of CCD classes where we drew pictures of Jesus and later, talked about our feelings. I wasn't really sure how to START. The answer, I learned from grammar and arithmetic, is to memorize the Catechism. The whole thing.
Second, that Catechism was a further Challenge to me in my re-version process. My personal faith life is not very liturgical (although I go to mass as often as possible and pray the Liturgy of the Hours.) But I don't pray "learned" prayers and it has been very hard for me in my reversion to pray from a book. It drives me a little batty when people say: "I will say a prayer," instead of "I will pray" or when they ask for a prayer for a specific situation. Prayer should be a loving dialogue, not a formula. SO I struggle with teaching people "learned" prayers.

Several years after I came home to Rome, I am now able to report that I can appreciate the value of praying "someone else's" prayer and that I certainly have incorporated more of that into my faith life. But one thing you need to understand about my family's prayer life, at least mine and my children's-- as my husband is more inclined to pray written prayers-- is that it's very spontaneous. Because of that, it didn't really occur to me that I should probably try to teach my kids the "Basic prayers" until I enrolled them in the CLAA, where that is a requirement for Catechism.
LOTS of people have asked me to explain how to teach young children to pray. Because I am so concerned that they get it in a "heart" way and not just "head" way, I usually just tell people to include God and conversations about and with God in your daily tasks. But for those who are trying to teach their kids the "Basic Prayers," there has been some concern over how old they should be, what method to use, etc.
To that I would say.... teach them from the beginning (ie. young.) Teach them every day (ie regularly). Eventually, they will get it. We've been doing the Our Father for about two weeks now officially (before that they heard it here and there and in mass) and my five year old can say it perfectly when she is paying attention. My almost four year old can say it with a few promptings, and my almost two year old says a long series of babbling that sounds just like it with a few additions, but VERY reverently. :D
Ever since I began teaching them the Lord's prayer, my five year old, who used to decline to pray by herself when I offered her the opportunity, often asks IF we can pray for any number of situations that we come across in our day. She used to ask me to pray for someone, and then say: "Let's pray. YOU say it." Now she happily prays for people, using the Our Father. I am confident that as she builds her relationship with Jesus she will learn to pray spontaneously also, but for now, I'm excited to see her so excited to pray for people. And because we study the MEANING of the Our Father in Catechism I, she doesn't think of it as a "formula," she thinks of it as calling on her Heavenly Father.
Give it a try, teach them to pray with their hearts, and then teach them some basic prayers