Hygge Case Study: We Found Peace

Our journey started with a statement from our Ofsted inspector

“Follow your hearts”.

For years my son and I had been working towards blending our family values into our early years setting. We love to upcycle, hate to waste, love the environment and wanted to create a nursery in this image. For years we had been blindfolded, like fish in a bowl we never got to see what life was like outside our own little nursery bubble. When we would receive advice from our Early Years Team or other nurseries in our area it never felt natural to us, it always felt like fitting into a biscuit mould, all the same and no essence of ourselves.

For years we had done everything right, by the book, creative and forward thinking but shackled by the frameworks and policies of a government falling slowly behind the times. Our nursery was beautiful but we had started to move towards more natural, open ended, ethically sourced resources. We had begun to shed the norm and started looking for an approach that had a similar essence to our own and that’s when we stumbled upon ‘Hygge’.

‘Hygge’ finally gave a name to a feeling, an essence of what we wanted our nursery to be about. It wasn’t long after reading Meik Wiking’s ‘The Little Book of Hygge’ that we found ourselves on the Hygge in the Early Years website. Having read Kimberly’s ‘Hygge in the Early Years’ we knew instinctively that to really put our vision into practice we needed a framework, designed by and supported by someone who felt the same way we did about the potential for early years.

Our ‘Hygge’ journey started rolling soon after we finished our first couple of tasks. Enamoured by the approach, our staff all started by setting up ‘Room Hygge Journals’. Taking it upon themselves they scoured the internet, books and practice for photos, activities and techniques which helped them to feel the true meaning of ‘Hygge’. After 10 years as a nursery we had found something that had refocused and regalvanised our team.

Leading from the front we began to implement sweeping changes. Buoyed by the positivity of our team and the families around us we began our steps towards our new approach relatively simply, we turned off the lights.

As strange as this sounds, this was the moment that made all the difference. With nothing but natural light flooding the rooms we found a peace. The team instantly noticed the volume was lower, there were less headaches, less tantrums and a natural calmness fell into place. During the long summer days the rooms glowed but as autumn reared its head we started to put in some subtle, but warm lighting. Gone were the days of large overhead lighting and in their place were cosy ‘Hygge’ autumn days. The warm glow of the subtle yellow lighting cradled the nursery from the cold autumn weather outside. As the days got darker, we began to understand the feeling of ‘Hygge’ so much more.

It was at this stage where we began to truly embrace the approach. Our resources had changed, instead of overly colourful, magazine toys we brought in real world objects. Upcycled from charity shops and donated by emotionally invested parents and grandparents alike nursery took on a new form. Pots, bracelets, scarves, tea pots, sticks, boxes, a world of open-ended resources became the new norm. A new freedom spread throughout the children and the team. There was an excitement at the endless possibilities resources without restrictions brought them.

Practice softened, and began feeling less regimented. Childcare felt like childcare again. The team and the children explored this new approach together. Bringing the outdoors in, embracing nature and the beauty it had to offer we surrounded the rooms in real and replica foliage. As we unpicked the ‘Hygge Manifesto’ we began to make links between old and new practice. We changed our approach to behaviour support to a more ‘HighScope’ approach as it felt more in line with the ‘Hygge’ way. Presence, Equality, Comfort, Harmony, Togetherness and Atmosphere were no longer ideas, they were part of us.

Our policies changed too. As our understanding grew, we found links between the approach and the frameworks around us. Everything made sense, everything became second nature. From this strong foundation we were able to branch off and try new ideas. We cleared the Pre-School Room one day and threw ourselves into the world of ‘Der Spielzeugfreie Kindergarten’ or the ‘Toy Free Nursery’. Nothing but warm lighting, swathes of cloth, boxes and tubes and a sprinkle of creative thinking led to day of wonder, excitement and exploration like never before.

The team felt free in their approach. The children felt more together. A close knit, family nursery had somehow managed to come closer after 10 years together. Mornings filled with warm porridge, around long, candle lit tables felt a world away from the winter rumbling outside. Soon after, spring began to bloom and the nursery was engulfed in natural colour again. Faux blossom filled the displays and the children began to grow seedlings, learn about animal families and explore the changes of the natural world.

Then COVID-19 hit.

It could have been the end of the journey. An unprecedented illness that flew in the face of everything we held dear, cosiness, togetherness, soft furnishings and gatherings. But it hasn’t been. In the face of adversity, we came together. Even through an enforced lockdown we were able to cling on to the feeling of ‘Hygge’. The team helped inspire the families, the children, each other to hold onto that feeling until we could come back together again. Instead of government bubbles we created ‘Hygge Pods’, filled with warm lighting and natural resources they created a safe space in the centre of a world turned upside down.

Even now, we continue to rebuild. Slowly we’ve began reintroducing aspects and resources that were taken away by the seriousness of the pandemic. Rotating soft resources out of pods, steaming pillows, distancing mealtimes but keeping the essence of ‘Hygge’ throughout.

The next steps of our ‘Hygge’ journey? well, only time will tell. Our ambition? to recapture the journey we were on before the world ground to a halt. To slowly, carefully reintroduce everything that made our nursery feel magical again. Warm porridge and oats around long tables. Comfy, cosy areas filled with blankets, puppets and pillows to snuggle away into. Days filled with exploration and curiosity. After we recapture that, then we can take our next steps towards the future.

by Noodles Nursery