Slow Down for Children

I was working with a friend at a library computer. Over and over she expressed frustration with the speed with which the computer was loading. So I said to her, "Remember when it took an hour and a half to cook dinner? Now eight minutes in the microwave seems forever." Both of us are old enough to remember many things that used to take time and planning.

Take cooking, for instance. First of all you had to plan your shopping. Grocery stores closed in the sixties. Really, someone actually locked the door and turned out the lights at five or six o'clock. You could not buy anything until the next day, unless of course, it was Sunday. Nothing was open on Sunday. Once grocery stores started staying open until nine, the butchers union would not allow the grocery to even SELL meat after six p.m. So plan ahead.

If you had all the ingredients you needed, you prepared them. Peeling potatoes, shucking corn, snapping beans, shelling peas, and chopping vegetables, were jobs for children  in the kitchen. That left boning, trussing stuffing, marinading, stewing, roasting, boiling, frying, breading, and baking for adults. The table had to be set. Food was transferred to serving dishes. When dinner was served thanks was given before anyone took a bite.

I hear there is a slow food movement afoot. I think this is a great idea. Personally, I am not much for cooking, but I am not a big fan of speedy food either. Slow is good.

Especially when it comes to children, I feel the need to slow things down. Not that children cannot deal with speed. Many children are quite capable of fast. No, we need to slow things down for children so that there is room to breathe.

Children need time to develop observation skills. The ability to perceive things in the environment is an important thinking skill. Staring at the clouds, watching the rain fall, crunching through the leaves, smelling the flowers, basking in the sun, listening to the insects buzz, licking the spoon are sensations to be savored. Quiet contemplation reveals solutions. Keen observation inspires inventions. Sensation calls to action. Stillness opens us to creation.

It is in the pauses between thoughts that the brain makes new connections.

"The brain is trying to weave ideas together even when you don't think you are thinking of anything," notes Johns Hopkins behavioral neurologist and memory expert Dr. Barry Gordon.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1957114,00.html

So take the time to slow things down, sit and do nothing, watch the world go by with the children you love. And when your child says to you, "I'm bored." you can reply, "That's good."