Grandma Hobbies for Slow Living

Slow down and tend to something using your hands with these grandma hobbies.

Slow Living

What I love about grandma hobbies is that they aren’t digital or on screens. In most instances, they require use of your hands. These hobbies require your attention and focus. Tending to something, that’s slow living. Using our hands is likely to key for many of us that are seeking peace in a busy world. We are looking to anchor by doing something tangible among an AI race between nations and big corporations.

If you’re here, my guess is that you are interested in a slower lifestyle and you are seeking peace in your days.

One of the first things you can do is start a grandma hobby that engages your hands and focus. Slow down by tending to something in an unhurried manner.

Grandma Hobbies

See below my list of grandma hobbies to try for supporting a slow and intentional lifestyle. Let me know if you think of any others!

Making Preserves

Making preserves can be jams, relish or canning produce. If you grow any of your own fruit or vegetables this is a nice way to make use of a large harvest that you won’t eat in one go.

The best tomato relish I’ve ever had was on a trip to New Zealand, it was homemade by a grandmother!

Making your own jam or relish is a great way to connect with your garden. You will grow your understanding of what produce is coming to the end of its season where you live.

You may also buy the produce in bulk for your preserves, and you could make a big batch at Christmas time and gift to loved ones. Handmade gifting is a beautiful act.

Crosswords

Crosswords are a great slow living activity. You can take the crossword outside and sit in nature or the sunshine while you work on it. Gives you focus time away from your phone. If you buy crosswords in a paper or magazine, you could do this on a regular schedule so it becomes part of your routine.

Brewing Tea for Visitors

It’s a wonderful thing to have someone visit you in your home. Brewing a pot of tea for visitors is very grandma. Perhaps a small plate of biscuits to accompany!

I’m a huge coffee fan, but I am now increasing my tea consumption for the afternoon. The ritual of making a pot of tea is just that, it’s a ritual.

The art of brewing a pot of tea for guests.

Puzzles

A puzzle is one of my favourite slow activities in my home! My daughter (currently 4) is working her way up in puzzles. She is currently at 300 pieces! Pottering with a puzzle and a cup is a lovely grandma hobby. I recall my grandfather, in his 90s, sitting at the dining table of my family home working away puzzles.

If my family travels and we stay in a cabin or similar holiday accommodation, I’ll pack a puzzle for us to work on.

Puzzles aren’t just a solo activity, you can engage family members to work on different areas.

Tending to the Flowers

Now, grandma may have just had flowers in pots, but very commonly tending to flowers is a beautiful past-time.

If you don’t have flowers, well, I encourage you to try and grow some. Start small by perhaps looking for dwarf varieties you can grow in a pot and start from there.

Growing up, beautiful flower hydrangeas were definitely a grandma’s prized flowers out the front of her home to tend to!

Tending to the flowers.

Writing Letters or Cards

If a relative is having a birthday, be sure to post them a card like grandma would!

I recently got a waterpainting card set so my daughter can paint the front of the cards. Another thing we always have on standby are a box of pretty cards, so they are readily available for any occasion!

Playing Scrabble

Playing scrabble is the slow living hobby to keep your mind active! It’s also fun to base socialising around a game instead of alcohol. Your focus is more wholesome and will leave you feeling nourished not depleted.

You may want to create a family tradition of playing scrabble or a similar game on a set date.

Baking

Baking is somewhat a given for a grandma hobby. I absolutely love to bake, each weekend I will think about what I would buy if I was going to a bakery or ask my husband what he feels like, then I will try and bake what we are craving!

The options are endless when it comes to baking. First that comes to my mind is baking a cake or slice. If you are going to a birthday or hosting, taking something home baked is lovely grandma charm.

Baking is the ultimate grandma hobby! And such a joy for hosting others.

Birdwatching

I’m not sure what it is with birdwatching, but I find as each year passes, I’m naturally more interested in spotting different birds. I live in Australia and let me tell you, we have some noisy birds here! Cockatoos which are very dominant in Australia and areas of the pacific sound prehistoric. But among these noisy lot, you get some beautiful birds to watch.

There is a lake near where I live that I take my regular walk and watch the black swans on the water. Just yesterday I was watching 5 of them swim in a line.

What birds inhabit where you live? When you go for a walk near a creek, look out for what birds you regularly see and which are new.

Crochet, Knitting, Cross-stitch or Sewing

Of crochet, knitting or sewing, my skillset is sewing. In the future when my children are older, my dream would be to be sewing more for the house or even items of clothing. I used to buy sewing magazines in my early corporate years and that was my after work joy. Another future dream of mine is to knit gifts for family! My husband’s aunty knitted handmade clothes for both of my babies and it is the sweetest gift.

For slow living weekends, you may like to pick up crochet or cross-stitch. You could create some charming decor for your home. Especially if you like the cottagecore home decor and styling that I do!

In Closing

Thank you so much for stopping my cottage! I hope you try picking up a few grandma hobbies to slow down. Remember, slowing down isn’t about doing nothing, it’s about tending to what is right in front of you.

Please leave a comment if you will slow down with any of the grandma hobbies?

Be sure to subscribe to my email list to receive slow and seasonal living newsletters from me. You’ll see more posts below to explore.

Rachael x

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