Tag Archives: Slow Family

Rhythm of the Home: The Blessings of a Slow Family

Posted on September 6, 2012 by suzlipman| 2 Comments

I am thrilled and honored to have a piece, The Blessings of a Slow Family, in the Autumn edition of Rhythm of the Home. I have been a fan of this beautiful magazine since its inception. (I have a piece in the Autumn 2010 Rhythm of the Home on Making a Fall Leaf Placemat.) It never fails to fill me with inspiration and beauty — photos are stunning, projects and tips are inspiring, and the contributors are uniformly engaging, wise and warm.

This is a hint of my story, which outlines many of the ways my family has found to honor the changing seasons, the rhythms of each day, and the community around us, through ritual, craft, nature and more.

When my family made a conscious choice to slow down, and reduce modern life’s typical pace, what we really did was get better in touch with rhythms and practices that have more in common with the turning wheel of the day and the year than with the artificial markers of the typical school and social year, not to mention the standard expectations about children’s development that don’t always fit our own children.

Because our modern culture can be poor at creating space for and then honoring life events and the movement of time, we have to create those rituals and activities for ourselves. Fortunately, my family found many ways to do that.

You can continue reading The Blessings of a Slow Family.

There are far too many delightful pieces in the Autumn Rhythm of the Home to list. I hope you will explore the issue for yourself. As for me:

I can’t wait to make these Reusable Sandwich Bags. I also love the Autumn Watercolor Crafts. And this is a very easy and original idea for a Shadow Puppet Show.

I am also eager to Have a Butterfly Celebration when the Monarchs return to their winter home.

This Autumn Pizza with Roasted Fig and Apples looks fantastic, and I’ve long wanted to try making Homemade Ricotta Cheese. I also really appreciate and believe in Using the Kitchen as a Place to Bond.

I am deeply inspired by The Story of an Apple, Nature Lovers, Four Fall Simplicity Seeds, 10 Steps Toward Getting the Break you Need, and A Season of Rebirth.

I am always moved by Erin Goodman and her thoughtful work and am thrilled that the issue features an Interview with Erin Barrette Goodman.

Even with all that, I have only hinted at the goodness in this issue of Rhythm of the Home. Do yourself a favor: Brew your favorite cup of tea, settle into a cozy spot and see for yourself.

Photos by Susan Sachs Lipman

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Tagged Autumn, Blessings of a Slow Family, Children, Cooking with Kids, Crafts, Erin Goodman, Fall, Fall Crafts, Family, Fed Up With Frenzy, Rhythm of the Home, Rituals, Slow Family, Slow Parenting

Slow News: Aggressive Parents Force Easter Egg Hunt Cancellation

Posted on March 26, 2012 by suzlipman| 5 Comments

It goes without saying that most of us parents want the best for our children. We wish to help them avoid adversity and suffering. But how do we separate real trauma from everyday life trials? When do we, even against instinct, stand back and let children have their own experiences, free from parental insertion?

Apparently, some parents at last year’s Easter Egg Hunt in Colorado Springs, CO, draw that line in a different place than others of us: Within seconds of the egg hunt, parents jumped a rope and swarmed the small park, determined to get their children an egg. Their behavior was such that organizers decided to cancel this year’s event.

So-called “helicopter parents” hover over their children’s lives, doing practically anything to ensure that their kids never fail. As a result, many children never experience normal disappointment and may ultimately lack necessary resources and coping skills.

Others, like the parent quoted in the article, seem to display an outsized and misplaced sense of competition and even entitlement:

I promised my kid an Easter egg hunt and I’d want to give him an even edge.

Of course, there is room for appropriate and age-appropriate assistance. For instance, one might let the kids hunt for eggs or gather pinata candy by themselves. If someone (usually a smaller child), is left empty-handed, I see nothing wrong with encouraging another child to share, or even gathering an item and helping. And that goes for anyone’s small child, not just my own.

That doesn’t quite sound like what occurred at the Last Easter Egg Hunt in Colorado Springs, when parents were so aggressive as to not even await the game’s outcome and so determined as to not let their children try to accomplish something (and have fun) for themselves.

Where do you draw the line?

See my Slow News page for other stories about Helicopter Parenting, Slow Parenting and Play.

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Posted in Butter and Egg, Holidays, Slow News

Tagged Aggressive Parents, Cancelled Egg Hunt, Colorado Springs, Easter, Easter Egg Hunt, Helicopter Parents, Slow Family, Slow News

Slow News: Discovering the Joy of Quiet

Posted on January 2, 2012 by suzlipman| Leave a comment

It seems many of us are taking time for contemplation and looking inward – or we wish to. The turning of the year could have much to do with this, as we use the marker of time to take stock, begin anew, and resolve to create more of the things we desire in life. It’s also winter in the Northern Hemisphere, a traditional time for many to embrace stillness and rest in a way that mirrors nature. And, if that weren’t enough, it’s the end of the holiday season, which can also signal a return to routine and calm.

But there’s also something else at work.

Pico Iyer tells us, in his New York Times piece The Joy of Quiet, that people are so desperate to get away from the din of information and chaotic lives that the future of travel “lies in ‘black-hole resorts,” which charge high prices precisely because they are internet- and television-free.

In barely one generation we’ve moved from exulting in the time-saving devices that have so expanded our lives to trying to get away from them — often in order to make more time. The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug. Like teenagers, we appear to have gone from knowing nothing about the world to knowing too much all but overnight.

Iyer notes that “the urgency of slowing down is nothing new”, but perhaps these latest trends point to the fact that, while the desire to slow down is not new, the urgency and the need to do so has increased. The frenzy of modern life and 24/7 communications has stretched many to the limit, and families and others are seeking techniques – be they “black hole resorts”, electronic-free days, or turning down team sports and birthday party invitations – to regain a sense of sanity, necessary down-time and quiet.

The good news is that you needn’t completely check out of life and into an expensive resort or an ascetic ashram.

Make a pledge to slow down as a family by turning off the electronics for one or more evenings a week and playing cards or classic board games.

Get out in nature together. Power of Slow author Christine Louise Hohlbaum offers some ideas.

Do a family craft or cooking project:

Make placemats from fall leaves, pressed flowers or other found objects.
Make apple butter.
Make Solstice cupcakes.

Whatever you do, try to bring your whole mind to the endeavor. Enjoy your family and time.

Photos: Susan Sachs Lipman

Slow News: Slow Family Movement Featured in USA Today

Posted on October 10, 2011 by suzlipman| 1 Comment

Slow Parenting is in the news again, as more and more parents are discovering that dialing back the amount of organized and scheduled activities for kids can lead to more family time and the sense of fun and calm that accompany it.

USA Today just featured the slow family movement, in an article that originally appeared in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, and features my compatriots at Slow Family Living, Bernadette Noll and Carrie Contey, whose workshops, workbooks and wisdom have been helping families slow down.

The article shares the ways in which some families have chosen to slow down and their creative solutions for making family time fun, meaningful and a source of memories and bonding.

Much current research backs up the need for the kinds of free play and family togetherness that doesn’t happen when children are constantly engaged in organized activities. Some of this thinking comes from Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg, author of Building Resilience in Children and Teens, who assures us, “There are no more valuable means of promoting success and happiness in children than the tried, trusted, and traditional methods of play and family togetherness.”

Perhaps that’s something to think about as we enter the busy holiday season.

Slow Family Has Moved – Come Along!

Posted on June 15, 2011 by suzlipman| Leave a comment

While you were sleeping, workshop elves helped Slow Family Online move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. If you are a subscriber, you may need to make a change to continue to receive Slow Family Online news.

If you subscribe through your own WordPress blog, you will need to visit SlowFamilyOnline.com and subscribe by email, in the right-hand column.

If you subscribe in a reader, you will need to visit your reader’s home page and enter the new feed address, www.slowfamilyonline.com/feed

If you bookmarked the old suzlipman.wordpress.com address, you will need to change your bookmark to www.slowfamilyonline.com

If you subscribe by email, you don’t need to change a thing to continue to receive updates from Slow Family Online.

Thank you for your patience and support. Cheers to enjoying a terrific and slow summer.

Suz

Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman

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Tagged Blogging, Blogs, Slow Family, Slow Family Online, Wordpress

Coming Next Summer from Slow Family: “Fed Up With Frenzy: Slow Parenting in a Fast-Moving World”

Posted on May 25, 2011 by suzlipman| 19 Comments

Just announced! My book, based on the ideas in Slow Family Online, will be out next Summer from Sourcebooks. Titled Fed Up With Frenzy: Slow Parenting in a Fast-Moving World, it will contain resources for many of the craft, cooking, nature, seasonal, and other fun family activities you’ve enjoyed here, as well as tons of new ones. I hope to create a compendium of ideas and projects to help you have fun and make memories by slowing down, rediscovering lost arts from a simpler time, and re-connecting with yourselves and each another in the process.

Please come along as I continue to write about ways to slow down, find joy and reconnect. Please keep sharing your own ideas and thoughts as we continue to journey down the Slow Lane together!

This is the announcement that was in Publisher’s Marketplace. Thanks, everyone, for all your support. I’ll keep you posted on the book’s progress.

		May 24, 2011


		Non-fiction: Parenting		Susan Sachs Lipman’s FED UP WITH FRENZY: Slow Parenting in a Fast-Moving World, a practical guide full of projects, activities, and games that will strengthen the parent-child bond, and help families reconnect, to Shana Drehs at Sourcebooks, by Andrea Somberg at Harvey Klinger.