"I was at zero for work life balance and at burnout"

This week on our Hygge blog we're joining my our members Sarah and Carly. The home based childcare team and recently completed the Hygge in the Early Years Accreditation. 

"My journey on the Hygge Accreditation has been life changing. Yes, I know it sounds corny but honestly it changed every except of my life.

This February I’ve been a childminder for 16 years and the changes and support childminders get has virtually disappeared. Training is now left to us to source as well as the cost. With no support from our local authority we collect a lot of information from support groups like early years teachers, childcare groups and other settings on social media. One night I stumbled upon the Hygge Accreditation and Kimberly and I was hooked.  I soon signed up and honestly, I have never in my life been so enthusiastic to do any kind of training and learning. The Hygge Accreditation is perfectly put together and so easy to understand with a wealth of teachers with knowledge in the early years that you will never get anywhere else. These educators are from all over the world and you really do get to feel and understand how childcare is delivered everywhere in the world.

Before I started the Hygge Accreditation I was just about burnt out. I work alongside my daughter and we had on role 22 children working 6.30am till 6pm 5 days a week 46 weeks a year.  Our work life balance was zero. Friday couldn’t come quick enough.  Weekends seemed to go very quickly because Sundays where spent setting up our playroom with big displays of what I thought it should look like. The walls where bright and loud with laminates and posters and pictures that the children couldn’t see or understand. It didn’t work anymore it was cluttered and it was just hectic. Something had to give before we did because we weren’t enjoying the job anymore.

As soon as I started with Kimberly, I could feel my passion for early years childcare coming back. It was instant every task I completed prompted change. I gained so much knowledge and a greater understanding from the hygge accreditation everything just instantly clicked. I stopped over thinking and really started to feel happy and passionate about each day. My mind was free of over complicated planning instead it was in the moment planning.  We quickly re designed and transformed our playroom. Organising and decluttering all the equipment, toys and resources. What I found with the Hygge Accreditation is that when you can visually see another setting you can see how Hygge works. The atmosphere and sense of calmness a Hygge setting offers is so wonderfully calm and cosy. I instantly felt very calm and relaxed and had my spark back. Hygge has really improved my overall wellbeing. Our setting has slowed down with a big enthesis on how we all feel on the day. Our days are decided on the day and we start our day with a very simple question to the children and parents “tell me about your morning/ how are you feeling today “? We have put in place 3 simple hand signals thumbs up, really good. Thumbs down, not good. Palm open and moving, not sure. Put together with our start of the day question. What an impact on our day this has had. The children love it we can gage how there feeling, take them off for extra snuggles and just keep an eye on those who are not feeling themselves. It’s such a wonderful life skill for our little people to take forward there so comfortable talking about their feelings and today it’s so important. There also very mindful of others and we see them giving each other cuddles and asking each other how they feel through the day using hand signals. A kind word or gesture at the start of someone’s day can totally change their day. This was one of the topics you covered at your Christmas conference and it totally stuck with us Kimberly and I cannot thank you enough. We are in the process of making a display with children demonstrating these hand signals so parents can see and take this home to use because its successful.

Hygge has really taught me to slow down and appreciate every day. Work wise my setting has transformed it’s so calm. Every bit of equipment is used. Children can see all the resources and have free excess to everything promoting high levels of independence.  There’s a good mix of real resources mixed in with plastic like our small world animals and lego. We have a tepee it’s our cosy nook full of blankets and cushions, this is a den, spaceship, reading corner, doctors anything the children decide on the day. We have our little areas of construction, maths, mark making, playdough station, role play. We love block play I really enjoyed this section I got in touch with the ladies and they recommended a book to get me started this has been so interesting. So many of areas of learning covered with block play I would never had known that. The books I have read from the guest speakers or fantastic. I’ve learnt so much and I keep going back to it.

Going forward our future we are going to expand we want to find premises. That’s our vision. We want to make an impact on every child’s life that step into our setting. We want to create a replica of our homebased setting. Hygge has transformed our setting and given us our work life balance back.

On a personal level my creativity has come back. I’m learning myself in what I’m interested in. I’ve started calligraphy and created some lovely wall quotes for our setting. Photography is a passion of mine especially in the great outdoors I get out every day its good for my soul. I just cannot stop crafting. I’m a better person its taught me to think about myself and what’s important.

We cannot wait to start the Wonderlust nature training. A big part of our provision is based outside. We go on our welly walks everyday and collect our treasures. Cannot wait to be inspired and carry on with our journey with you Kimberly."

Sarah and Carly Baker