Slow living lifestyle with kids. Potions play in nature.

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For those of you with children, who are wondering if it is possible to achieve a slow living lifestyle with your kids. I am here to tell you that it is! It does not mean your days will be free from chaos, mess or noise. In fact, your will still entail all of these. That is simply the wonderful beauty of young children. By following a slow living lifestyle in your family, it can mean that you spend your time intentionally and be as unrushed as you can.

If you want to embark on a slow living lifestyle (and I hope that you do!), it’s a wonderful idea to do it as a family. Encourage your children to embark on the art of slow living, too.

The Art of Slow Living

Here’s the thing, my kids have been my biggest slow living teachers. I’ve chosen to swap my “hustle” and striving so I can slow down and spend time with them. I want to be present for their childhood. I know many of you have that yearning to slow down.

Children demand your presence. I remember hearing the saying, “presence over presents”. Kids don’t have emails to get to, or things to check on a device. There are no likes to check on social media posts, or news headlines from the other side of the world to fixate on. They are exceptional at being present and enjoying the task at hand.

We can learn to disconnect from the things that take our attention away. Being present is a key component of a slow living lifestyle. As is focusing on the task at hand. The art of slow living is to take your time and do things with love. Do things properly. Do things you want to do.

I’ve learned the art of slow living with kids while they are with me and my husband full-time. Our days are full. Slow living doesn’t mean sitting around doing nothing. There will be seasons in your life where you don’t have young kids to interrupt you. But during the season of raising children, your slow living lifestyle will need to incorporate them.

We live in a very output driven world. With many apps to record and track almost everything you can imagine. It’s a lot and can be exhausting. We are bombarded with so much choice every single day that it is exhausting. The first thing many people see when they wake up is conflict on the other side of the world. We weren’t created to be confronted with this information every day.

Slow living is about being. We want to learn to soften. We want to embrace the ordinary moments, and find beauty in the realistic simple memories created with you kids.

Find a Rhythm With your Kids

Trying to fit it all in as a parent can often result in overscheduling. Kids like to know what to expect and have simple routines, but not schedules that are jam-packed and rigid. For a slow living lifestyle with kids, I like to create a rhythm to our week rather than a strict schedule.

Our week has a nice rhythm, so my kids know generally what to expect. But there is open time for exploring and creating. There is flexibility to play in the sand at the beach for longer, or sit in the yard and work on a fairy garden.

One of the big detractors of slow living for parents is a hard truth. And that hard truth is parents checking their devices while the kids are playing. If you have certain social media apps on your phone that you feel compelled to check, you may wish to delete them for periods while you are spending time with kids. Anything that takes you away from being in the present. The constant alerts from phones means it’s hard to disconnect and soften. This will benefit you too, allowing you to soften and release the constant bombardment of notifications and alerts.

Slow Living Activity Ideas for Kids

We all know that kids love activities. There are great slow living style activities you can set up for your children to explore. I don’t want to create a constant overstimulation. For the most part, we turn to nature for our play backdrop and plenty of outside time. Here are a few slow living activities to try with your children.

Jigsaw Puzzles

While my younger son is not ready for puzzles, my older daughter adores them! She is quite impressive and even recognises where puzzle pieces belong before I do. I’m talking about 300 and 500 pieces and she is only 4. Here are a few puzzles that we love:

We love this gorgeous magical woodland Bear’s Picnic 100 piece puzzle.

Mud Kitchen

Setting up a mud kitchen for slow living play is a little bit more costly to start for acquiring the kitchen. But once you have a mud kitchen outside in your yard or garden, the play is endless! This is a great way for your kids to use imaginations with things in nature they can work with! They can use dirt, bark, leaves, water and all sorts of natural materials to create with.

Potions Table

Set your kids up with a potions table or station on the floor outside for slow living fun. Use stainless steel or wooden bowls for long lasting use. They can also handle a little rain outside! For shimmering colours to mix together in a potion, use a combination of this mica powder and food colouring in jars or sauce bottles. I like to collet fallen flower petals or deadhead flowers with my kids to use in their potions.

Do some gardening, or sit back with a tea and watch your kids create their potions.

Baking

*I just love little hands kneading dough!*

I involve my kids whenever I bake. We make as much from scratch as possible to teach them about seasonal living! This also teaches them that if we want something, such as a muffin, we need to spend the time to bake it. I’m starting to share seasonal recipes that we love in my family. You can try them too!

In Closing

I hope you enjoy incorporating a slow living lifestyle with your kids. Please join my email list below for slow and seasonal inspiration. You may also like to read my post on 6 Simple Ways to Stay Connected to Nature’s Cycles for those of you desiring to step outside more.

Thank you for stopping by my cosy cottage and reading my writing! Leave a comment below to say hello or share your slow living lifestyle with kids.

Rachael x