Savoring Childhood: Practical Wisdom for Slowing Down
Overview
Small Steps to Help Children Flourish in a Hurried World
Many children today are caught up in the frantic pace of life, rushed along by forces beyond their control. When kids grow up too quickly and experience life at top speed, they are left distracted, anxious, and struggling to find depth.
The good news is it’s possible to help children experience life at a slower pace. In Savoring Childhood, you’ll learn how to push back against the demands of our superficial, automatic, and always-on culture as you walk through five essential ways of slowing:
- Slow gratification
- Slow schedules
- Slow media
- Slow consuming
- Slow growing up
Drawn from an average family’s experiments with resisting the rush of life and spiritual formation wisdom from voices like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster, Grace Pouch presents practical steps to slow things down so that children can grow deep relational roots, inward character, and a flourishing friendship with God.
With Savoring Childhood, you’ll learn how to
- identify what’s moving too fast in kids’ lives;
- set a pace of life that supports freedom, connection, and depth; and
- implement practical solutions to give children a grounded, non-anxious, and spiritually rich childhood.
God designed childhood to be abundant. Whether in your home, your classroom, or your ministry, you can learn how to partner with God to slow things down so that the children in your life can flourish.
Beginnings
Part 1: Slow Gratification
1. Sweet Countdowns
2. Stretching
3. Time Machines
4. Long-Term Projects
Part 2: Slow Schedules
5. A Palace in Time
6. Tidying Up
7. Speed Checks
8. Singletasking
Part 3: Slow Media
9. Offloading
10. Snail Mail
11. Library Carts
12. Record Players
Part 4: Slow Consuming
13. Simple Tastes
14. The Creative Option
15. Heartfelt Gifts
16. Revival Skills
Part 5: Slow Growing Up
17. Animal Friends
18. Reading Down
19. Counterpoints
Benediction
Acknowledgments
Notes
"In our frenzied, fast-paced, attention-grabbing world, it is increasingly important for parents and caregivers to find ways to slow things down for children. Indeed, with our fully formed adult brains, we have the cognitive ability to do what ourchildren cannot yet. When it comes to becoming tech-intentional (TM), this means putting skills before screens and prioritizing relationships. Savoring Childhood provides a guide for parents to rethink family life through a lens of slowing down, with plenty of practical and tactical strategies to do so."
Emily Cherkin, author of The Screentime Solution
"As a parent in today’s fast-paced world, I am deeply grateful that Grace P. Pouch’s voice exists to guide us into the ancient and timeless teachings of Christ. Savoring Childhood is exactly the kind of text we need: a soulful meditation on how we can teach a generation—and ourselves—how to be present in the real mystery of becoming. This is a stunning and essential book."
Joseph Fasano, author of The Magic Words
"What Grace Pouch offers to readers in this marvelous book is not only permission to give our children the gift of slowness but also rich insight and practical guidance to do it well. This is the book you didn’t know you needed but are desperately glad you’ve found. Read it. Savor it. Ingest it. And let it help you get off the mad runaway train of soul-crushing busyness that marks our modern lives."
David and Phaedra Taylor, authors of Prayers for the Pilgrimage
"Savoring Childhood by Grace P. Pouch is a book written out of the crucible of lived experience. This makes it of enormous value, not only for our children but for us as well. There is a gentleness in the words that calls us to a deeper, fuller life of unhurried peace and power. I recommend it highly."
Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline and Streams of Living Water
"As parents who long for a gentler pace and have worked to protect the space of childhood, we know how valuable this book is. That’s why we’re so grateful for Grace P. Pouch, who has gathered every day, unhurried experiments into one resource. It’s full of wisdom, simple practices, and the reminder that a slower, steadier life is still possible for kids today."
Jonathan Bailey, cofounder of Dwell and author of Dwelling in Christ, and Kori Bailey
"In this sympathetic and approachable combination of philosophy and practicality, Grace P. Pouch makes a compelling case for keeping in step with the Spirit in raising children. Challenging but accessible and actually doable, Pouch’s suggestions will be life-changing for both children and their parents. Savoring Childhood is a gift, one I wish I’d had when I was bringing up my own kids."
Richella J. Parham, author of Mythical Me and chair of the Renovaré board of trustees
"Savoring Childhood by Grace P. Pouch is an excellent book with very helpful and practical suggestions for dealing with instant gratification, hurried schedules, high-speed and always-on media, rapid consuming, and growing up too fast. Parents and their children and grandchildren will be deeply blessed by this book and so will all of us. Highly recommended as a must-read!"
Siang-Yang Tan, senior professor of clinical psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary and author of Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Christian Perspective
"Savoring Childhood reorients family life around what matters most. This book is a gift for overwhelmed parents in an unbalanced world. Grace P. Pouch creatively reimagines spiritual disciplines like simplicity, slowing, and attentive presence for everyday life together at home. Her wise insight and ‘small steps’ for intentional parenting offer a practical pathway toward well-paced lives of love and delight."
Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, author of Glittering Vices
- Title: Savoring Childhood: Practical Wisdom for Slowing Down
- Author: Grace P. Pouch
- Publisher: IVP Formatio
- Print Publication Date: 2026
- Logos Release Date: 2025
- Pages: 224
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781514011171, 9781514011164, 1514011166, 1514011174
- Resource ID: LLS:9781514011171
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-12-05T10:54:51Z