Hygge and the Pandemic

Many of you are worried that due the pandemic all the hard work you’ve done over the last year on the ethos of your practice and the learning environment has to go.

I’ve heard of heart broken reception teachers having to sit their children at desks in rows, display boards getting ripped down and child led learning getting lost.

We can’t let this happen.

And…

It doesn’t need to happen.

In this blog post I’m going to share with you some thoughts on how we can keep that hygge feeling without losing all of the hard work we’ve already done.

Let’s begin by reminding ourselves what hygge is. Hygge is the Danish approach to living well that focuses on being in the moment and embracing the feelings of warmth, simplicity and togetherness.

It’s not just about how your physical environment is set up (although this contributes to it) but it’s about slowing down to be present in the very moment you’re in. Taking time to acknowledge the feelings and improved joy.

Inside the Hygge in the Early Years Accreditation I walk you through how you can take this approach to both your teaching and professional life; by slowing down your planning, creating a sense of togetherness and setting up a highly engaging learning environment.

I know that many aspects of creating a cosy learning environment involve bringing in the warmth with different fabrics and textures. Perhaps some felt small world trees, hessian on your display boards or a cosy nook to play in. What do we do now that we want an environment that’s easy to clean and disinfect while still maintaining the hygge feeling?

1. Create nooks in plastic boxes

Ok, so these might not look as appealing as a wooden crate or have all of the sensory experiences natural materials offer us. This is where you can be a bit more inventive with waking up the senses or bringing in the sense of calm. Try adding some fairy lights under your box to give the play a warm and magical glow, add in some plants around the side or use a projector behind it. Once we start getting creative with our tools, we can easily transform the space. I have always enjoyed the use of projector play to bring in a different element. In the video above you will see that I’ve set up a small word scene and projected a live stream of the savanna onto the background. Bringing in nature, adding curiosity and giving children the sense of adventure. I have also added a book to the area for the children to deepen their learning.

2. Display Boards

I have heard horror stories of school leaders tearing down display boards and leaving the classroom with blank walls. I can understand that materials like hessian and voil are not ideal at the moment. How about backing your walls in a neutral colour paper (or even backing paper used before wallpapering) and then covering your display with a layer of sticky back plastic over the top. This will last all year and it means you can easily wipe the display boards too. Why not create a fairy light border to add a little bit of interest.

Documentation and the art of making learning visible is really important in allowing children to make connections with their learning. Perhaps you could even create digital displays of learning through photos and videos played on the smartboard, laptops dotted around the provision or digital photo frames.

3. Get outside!

The Danes understand the benefits of spending large amounts of time outside and know that it improves wellbeing as well as contributes to a healthy body. Luckily for you anything we can learn inside can easily happen outside on an even larger scale!

Go for a daily walk into nature with your children and talk about what you see and hear. Many of your children will have spent large periods of their day inside (especially if their parents were shielding) and time in nature is needed now more than ever. Your daily walk also allows for time to just talk, where there is no other agenda, and build on the social emotional needs of the children.

Also spend time in your early years garden growing your own vegetables and spending time in the soil. Working in the soil is not only wonderful for boosting the immune system, releasing built up energy and studies also show that the connection with the earth releases feel good hormones.

Enjoy working on a large-scale with drainpipes and crates or constructing obstacle courses. Go on nature hunts, hide phonemes outside to find or squelch numicon plates in the mud and watch how it oozes!

4. Family Time

In some ways our connection with the families we work has grown stronger over the pandemic. With many of you making weekly calls to children, sharing video bedtime stories, mindful moment tips and so many of you have been sending home my free home learning packs too.  I feel that we have found a new way of coming together for the best interests of the child. Why not take a photo display showing the new memories children have made during lockdown?

5. Get rid of the tables

Once the children return to setting why not make your bubbles into families and spend the time working on a child led project? For example, exploring how you could you made your own 3D storm cloud in response to the children’s fascinations. Working in such a creative and responsive way doesn’t need rows of tables just an open space to work. Cutting down on the use of surface to clean!

Some other quick ideas;

• Studies by NASA show that having indoor plants helps to purify the air. Why not add these to your learning areas.
• Turn off the harsh over head lights and instead put on table lamps or fairy lights. Why not drape some fairy lights in your taller indoor plants or have a shelf of jars filled with fairy lights? These will give off a lovely warm glow on a dull day.

I hope this helps!

Stay strong and don’t lose hope on the wonderful practice you’ve already developed.

Kimberly x

P.S The Hygge in the Early Years Accreditation is opening again soon! Register your interest here