This is the widest gap in daily publishing and it is not close.
Amazon shows roughly 15,300 searches a month for "secular family devotional" against about 270 products, and around 18,400 for a secular devotional for kids against about 310. The Christian family devotional shelf answers the same question with tens of thousands of titles. Nobody has built the other one.
We should say plainly that we haven't either. Our books are written for adults, and the children's line is watercolor early-learning for ages 0 to 5, which is a different job entirely. What follows is other people's work, plus the part of the problem a book won't solve.
What actually exists
365 Days of Wonder · R.J. Palacio (2014)
The closest thing to a real secular family devotional in print. A precept for every day of the year, collected by the fictional teacher from Wonder, drawn from song lyrics, children's books, Confucius, Anne Frank and about a hundred child readers who sent theirs in. Best for roughly ages 8 to 13, and it works at the dinner table because a precept is short enough to argue about.
The one caveat: it leans on Wonder, so it lands much harder with a child who has read the novel.
A Poem for Every Night of the Year · Allie Esiri (2016)
366 poems, one per night, each tied to its date. Shakespeare on midsummer, Maya Angelou on International Women's Day, Lewis Carroll on April Fool's. Tennyson and Yeats sit next to Benjamin Zephaniah and Carol Ann Duffy, so the range is genuinely wide.
This is the best bedtime version of the format, and the one most likely to survive the child growing up, because poems don't condescend. Esiri has published several companions in the same shape.
Q&A a Day for Kids · Betsy Franco
Not a reading but a three-year journal: one question a day, a few lines for the answer, the same date revisited in each of three years. For ages 4 to 10 and mostly a keepsake, which is a fair reason to own it. Start on any day.
The Intellectual Devotional · Kidder & Oppenheim (2006)
The right answer for a family with teenagers. Seven fields rotating through the week, one page each, and it gives a table full of people something to disagree about that isn't each other. Our comparison page covers the sequels and the alternatives.
The Daily Dad · Ryan Holiday (2023)
Worth naming even though it faces the wrong direction. 366 short meditations on parenting, read by the parent rather than to the child. Most families searching for a shared daily reading would get more out of one adult reading this quietly than out of a forced group ritual.
Why the shelf is empty
The Christian family devotional works because it has a fixed source text, a shared reason to gather, and an audience that already meets at a set time. Take away the faith and all three supports go with it. What is left is a hard book to publish: a daily reading for a mixed-age group with no agreed subject and no reason to be in the room.
Which is why the good secular options are all narrow. They pick one thing (a precept, a poem, a question) and stop trying to be a family liturgy.
The part the book won't do
Fix the slot before you buy anything. Dinner or bedtime, same time, non-negotiable for a month. Families who choose a book first and a time later mostly end up with a book.
Keep it under three minutes. One reading, one round of responses. The failure mode is a parent extending it into a lesson, at which point the children start managing you rather than listening.
Let them argue with it. The Christian version asks for assent. The secular version has no such claim on anyone, so its only real advantage is that a child can say the precept is wrong and be taken seriously. Spend that advantage.
Read your own, separately. The most durable version of this in most households is each adult keeping a morning page of their own and one short shared reading with the children. Our secular shelf covers the adult half, and the free daily Tao and philosophy emails cost nothing to try.
For younger children, our kindness books and printable breathing exercises are closer to the right size than any devotional, and reading before bed covers the ritual itself rather than the material.
Common questions
Is there a secular family devotional?
A handful of books do the job without a religious frame. R.J. Palacio's 365 Days of Wonder gives a precept a day for roughly ages 8 to 13, Allie Esiri's A Poem for Every Night of the Year gives a dated poem for bedtime at any age, and The Intellectual Devotional works for families with teenagers. There is no widely published equivalent to the Christian family devotional.
What can we do instead of a family devotional?
Fix the time first and keep the reading under three minutes: one short piece and one round of responses at dinner or bedtime. A poem, a precept or a single question works better than a book trying to be a family liturgy, because it leaves room for the children to disagree with it.
What is a good non-religious devotional for kids?
365 Days of Wonder by R.J. Palacio for ages 8 to 13, especially if the child has read Wonder. For younger children, Q&A a Day for Kids by Betsy Franco is a three-year daily journal for ages 4 to 10 that doubles as a keepsake. For any age, a dated poem a night ages better than either.
Why are there so few secular family devotionals?
The religious version comes with a source text, a shared reason to gather and an existing meeting time. Remove the faith and all three go. What is left is hard to publish: a daily book for a mixed-age group with no agreed subject. The secular titles that work all solve a narrower problem instead.
Do you publish a secular family devotional?
No. Our 365 Daily Reads series is written for adults, and our children's books are watercolor early-learning titles for ages 0 to 5. The books on this page are other publishers'. Many parents use one of our daily readers for themselves and a poem or precept with the children.
What age should a family start a daily reading?
A shared reading works from about four with a question-and-answer format, and from about eight with a precept or poem. Before four, the ritual matters and the content doesn't, so bedtime stories do the same job better.