"I don't do Hygge in my provision very well"

I recently heard one of my lovely members panic that she wasn't doing hygge right or even very well. 

It's so easy to get distracted with what everyone else around you is doing and start believing that there is only one way to do provision or practice in the early years. Especially when you see so many set ups on social media and start to feel the self doubt creep in: Should I have no plastic toys? But what if my children like playing with lego...is this OK? Or what if I don't have lots of money to buy brand new resources?

When we look at high quality early childhood practice and drawn upon research we know that the most effective early years settings are those that put the child at the heart of the curriculum and reflect/ respond to their needs accordingly. Recognising how and what your children want to learn and making this possible. 

A setting could be picture perfect, with the most beautiful wooden small world figures and loose parts to explore, but it's important to remind ourselves that this isn't what has the impact on the learning. The children attending this type of setting might have a very busy time table and never have time for sustained play in their provision. Or perhaps the educators working here don't trust the children to use the environment in a way they see desired  by allowing the transporting  of toys or restricting creativity by asking for toys to be used in a set way.

I have also worked with some settings that have been lucky to receive a good budget each year to buy new resources but the educators working here haven't always understood how to use these resources to support learning. The items have been bought because everyone else on social media has them. For example an expensive lightbox, mirror and loose parts collection that looked amazing when entering the setting but no child played with these because the adults there didn't see how learning happened here. 

We can use tools like the Leuvan Scales of wellbeing and involvement to help us evaluate the quality of our practice by looking at the levels of engagement within our play and then make changes accordingly to our environment and practice. We shouldn't just get rid of all our plastic resources because they don't 'fit' or have gone out of trend. Instead consider which resources are well used, which support creativity, open ended play (Numicon, lego, small world) and that meet your children's needs and interests. 

We must take a sensible view of sustainability. Anything that we don't want could be passed on to a family, given to charity or re-used in a different way. Make a long term plan for collecting new resources and accept that you can't achieve everything all at once. 

It's also important to pick up here that we shouldn't be feeling the need to 'buy' lots of new resources to be a high quality educator or bring hygge into our practice. The greatest resource that we have is you as the adult! Showing an interest, acknowledging your children's needs and supporting and challenging learning. Being together with the child as a partner in their learning. 

Any learning that we do can also be achieved for free in nature. That's what my Wanderlust Nature Study training shows us: anything we can do inside can easily be achieved outside for free!

When considering bringing the 'hygge'  element into the practice we can understand that hygge isn't a resource that can just be bought. Hygge is actually something we experience when we just take the time to slow down and feel it. To be in that moment of simple joy and it's unique to us all. It's about how you create the everyday magic in your teaching, the calmness you introduce to the day and the pause you allow for your children to breath. For some that will be the excitement of finding a leaf skeleton while out on a daily walk and taking the time to be curious about it. To others the hygge moment will be setting up an obstacle course for your lively two year olds and seeing not only the fun they're having but acknowledging that you know what your children need, you can meet those needs and your present with them in that moment. 

Next time self doubt creeps in that 'you're not good enough' or you 'have no money to achieve hygge' take a moment to pause and tune in to what your children have done today and ask, 'have I had impact on my children's learning today?' and 'did this learning happen because of the way I responded as an educator to a child?'

 For more support with your practice check out my range of short courses here