10 Days of Hygge: Day 4

3 Ways to Bring Hygge to your learning environment

Hygge is often miss understood and people believe that they can buy that hygge look by just changing the environment. Instead hygge is an investment into yourself and the journey of embracing it should be taken slowly. There is so much to hygge from slowing down, discovering what lights you up (and the children you work with) and bringing more balance to your day.

1. Hygge lighting is about creating a warm atmosphere. Open up your blinds and let the natural light flood in. Turn off the harsh strip lights and instead go for table amps, twinkly lights and LED Candles. Add a beautiful glow to your room by draping twinkly lights around suspended branches, the edges of your display board or filling empty jars with them.

2. Adding nature into your environment brings in calmness and also removes the toxins from the air. Yucca's and Spider Plants are safe for young children. You could also incorporate this natural background into small world play. or add herbs and plants in ports. Consider ways you can display natural finds from a local walk or woodland visits and start up a collection of loose part treasures. You could also add branches and suspend these from the ceiling.Great to hang children's work from and photographs. Why not use your speakers to play the sounds of nature in the background.

My members Little Birds Pre-school started to replace their plastic resources with natural ones and saw higher levels of engagement and more imaginative play. They also noticed that the children were calmer in the environment as well.

3. For me hygge is about embracing the feeling of joy you get when around those that make you feel like sunshine. Look at the areas of your provision and consider if there is space and room for children to come together. Does the area feel cosy? Are there things of interest in the area to promote talk? Plan opportunities in your day to make memories. Like baking bread or a fruit crumble with foraged berries. We don't just have to create memories by taking children on an expensive trip out somewhere. Stay local.