Blog

How do we slow down our planning and also plan our environment responsively?

This is something I share the exact steps to do in my slow planning guide availablehere. 

Below Abbie shares an example from her setting.

As the evenings have become darker, we have been sitting outside having our evening snack under the stars, our children have been fascinated by the moon! 

We created this provocation around the moon and space, our children came straight in to explore which we then extended on further.. Our children commented that it is dark in the night sky, so we added a thin blanket across this area to create a really cosy den with our fairy lights. Our indoor lighting is rarely used as our fairy lights and resources soften the atmosphere and really encourage awe and wonder for our children. 

I could really see this provocation enhancing children's learning and slowing down their play to become more present and really learn about their...

Fluffy Ducks Childcare : Our Hygee Journey

My name is Rhonda and I am a registered childminder based in Lancashire. I have been registered 21 years and have achieved Ofsted outstanding in my last two inspections. Whilst achieving this grading came with happiness for all my hard work, it unfortunately came with consequences. Pressure to maintain this, to be more like a nursery. To spend every minute of the day focusing on “What can we do now”, endless paperwork and planning. Expectations that I had created for myself. Gradually over the last 2years this has taken away my passion for my job, it has left me feeling my home is not my home, undervalued for what I do and dreading each day as it came.

Last year I found the Hygee accreditation through Facebook. The more I looked into this, the more I felt I needed to change, even if that meant changing how I work, the look of a nursery setting, losing my grading on my next inspection. I needed my business to become an...

Autumn time has to be one of my favourite times of the year. Having Oliver now makes it even more exciting too as I take a moment to stand back and watch him experience the world for the very first time.

We have loved getting outside each day and doing the same daily walk. It's lovely to just walk with Oliver in the sling and talk about all the things we notice each day and notice any changes. Doing this is very much inspired by the practice of the Danes with the daily walk children in early education do. When Oliver is old enough we will pick our favourite tree as well to document its changes as we move through the year. 

I also think it's important that we as adults take the time to just pause and appreciate the slow moments of joy in the day. We can't teach hygge and living well if we don't model it ourselves. I've built this into our daily walk and we will often find a little spot to just sit and watch what's going on. I love chatting away yet I feel that...

Everyone says my Hygge journey but it really is a journey and mine started after similar circumstances to Kimberly. I was a primary school teacher working in the nursery department. I then left to become a childminder in my own home which enabled me to establish my own ethos and environment.

I had completed the Wonderlust course during the first Lockdown with my own children and wanted to build up my confidence again so that I could be the best for the children so I began the accreditation.

As a parent of a child with additional needs I wanted to be able to work with the children individually and follow their interests but also inspire them with new experiences so that they would learn at their own pace. For me the pandemic had some positives and one of these was that we often spent time outside appreciating the small things helping us to rebalance so that was where I started.

I am always evaluating, seeing what works and what doesn’t and so through the conferences and the...

4 months of having Oliver and I just love our precious time together so much. He’s at a wonderful stage of starting to roll and showing so much curiosity in the world around him. I feel so incredibly happy but gosh in all honesty I don’t think I’ve ever felt so exhausted!

From the broken nights sleep with the 4 month sleep regression and two tiny troublesome teeth coming through (so soon!) it can be tough and there are days when my brain can feel a little foggy. I found myself putting the washing in the fridge yesterday!?

Lately I’ve been finding that I’ve been using every possible nap time as an opportunity to ‘get things done’. From packaging orders to running around the house with the duster. I’ve realised that I’ve forgotten the importance of rest for me.

It’s hard isn’t it when you want to be productive and are so used to feeling organised and efficient. Yet I know that for me to be the...

You struggle to find the time to set up the environment each day and find that you lack consistency in the resources available to the children?

Using my Continuous Provision Audit tool you can invest time now in getting your every day environment set up just right! Using my tick list guide for each area to make sure you have all the essential resources to allow for child led learning. 

You will be able to use the exact tool that I used to create an Ofsted judged outstanding learning environment.

You can also be inspired with photos showing you how you might set up each area. For example your tinkering space would have the following resources:

• Safety glasses
• Toolbox
• Trays with inserts
• Screw drivers
• Tape measure
• Small pliers
• Clipboards
• Pencils
• Items to deconstruct: Old and broken laptops, computers, sewing machines, video & CD players, phones, fans, clocks, microwaves, toasters and other kitchen appliances, heaters, fans, bikes, push & pull toys, battery operated toys...

When I started my journey with Hygge in the Early Years we were in the middle of our first lock down and only had one keyworker child attending. It was the first in over 30 years as a nursery nurse that I was forced to not work to full capacity. I embraced the courses that were on offer through Hygge in the Early years and loved every minute taking the opportunity to enhance my childminding setting of over 20 years, having previously been a Nanny. For 8 years I had also been working with my husband, Ian who had trained as a Forest School leader. As I started the accreditation, he was put to very good use making changes to both our indoor and outdoor provision.He installed more nature in the playroom with a branch,artificial foliage and fairy lights, made a dinosaur park in the garden and revamped our mud kitchen.

I was left devastated when the 6th June 2020 Ian died at home of an enlarged heart. I didn’t stop working as I needed the routine of work to keep me going and I also...

Where love lives by Stacy Peach

I have worked in a range of childcare settings since 2006, and have a vast range of experience, knowledge and qualifications but I always felt restricted by the red tape of the settings I was working in, they were target driven often with a checklist mentality where the real ethos of children’s learning was not strongly embedded enough to make a difference. The staff were often working long hours with very little resources which lead to ‘treading water’ and just making it through each day.

I feel strongly about children’s learning and I genuinely love what I do, I love whole heartiest making a difference to children and their families, I love seeing children risk assess, problem solve and really grow through their own unrestricted interested and I started the hygge accreditation to aline what I love and aspire to offer. With this in mind I have stepped away from the setting I was working in and I am currently...