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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 best for Oliver (and the rest of my family (🧔‍♂️🐱🐱) I need to apply my own oxygen...

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 (Risk...

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 pledge...

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 taking some time out with my family ...

I am a childminder in Gloucestershire and have been childmiding for nearly 19 years.

I used to enjoyed my work but it was starting to take it’s toll on me and my mental health.
So, I took a break in 2019 and started a baby massage business and an holistic therapy business. This made me take a step back and look at my own wellbeing. Unfortunately, this didn’t last long and I returned to childminding in 2020 where I took the knowledge of my holistic training and started my Hygge in the Early Years Accreditation.
Before I started the Accreditation my setting consisted of bright colours but still a dark room. It had lots of plastic ‘noisy’ toys and numerous posters around the roomPlastic labels were on boxes making it look cluttered and scruffy. We did go outside to play but only because I ‘felt’ we should!

Since working my way through the Accreditation (and my previous knowledge of holistic health) I look at my ‘work’ in a different way.

I ‘see’ the children now and enjoy listening t...

“It feels like home”

A member of staff said this as she walked through my classroom and I answered, “That’s exactly how I want it to feel”.

I started my Hygge journey about 5 years ago when working in a nursery classroom as part of a primary school.

Over the years I have witnessed many different types of classrooms. When I eventually became a teacher, I knew exactly how I wanted my classroom…. calm, simple, cosy, and happy!

I started the beginning of the year by asking for family photographs to display in our classroom. The children loved to chat about the photos, and it was a talking point for a number of weeks.

I have always been interested in child development, reading, and researching about different theorists. As an Early Years department, we have implemented lots of different ideas from lots of different theorists and cherry picked the ones that we feel best fit our children.

I currently work in a forest school and so the outside environment is just as important as th...

Do you use wooden crates in your play?

I have loved using wooden crates in my play now for quite a few years and really like the way they can create cosy little spaces to play and explore in or add a level of curiosity and intrigue to the environment. Crates are also very useful for creating flexible and movable storage areas within your early years provision. Perhaps as a good set of shelving for your book nook. 

I like to have a collection of different sized crates to support my work. These have been collected over the years from kind friends who have used them for their wedding, Ikea purchases, Facebook marketplace pick ups and also bought directly from Cosy Direct. 

I find them to be a wonderful open ended resource that can be used inside or outside. For example on a sunny day they can be used to set up a provocation in response to children's learning in the garden (you can find out more about setting up provocations here.) or perhaps use a few crates together to create a wo...

Working smarter instead of harder is a big part of looking after our wellness.

In Scandinavia it’s very rare to see people working late or even logging over -time as it can be seen as working in an inefficient way.

Learning how to prioritize is a crucial survival skill for getting through pressured times. It brings order to chaos, creates calmness and space, and reduces stress. I walk you through the whole goal setting process inside the Hygge journal.

Essentially think of three tasks you must complete to move you closer to your overall goals each day. These are your needle movers and must happen. Anything else can wait. When we work in this way it means we spend less time working on the day to day tasks that can bog us down.

What 3 things must you get done today?

By Anna Webb

-My practice before the accreditation (What I needed help or guidance on)

-The vision I've created in my work

-The changes I've made to my personal life and practice

-The impact this has had on myself, the children and the setting. 

-Your next steps for future development.

Before I began the Hygge accreditation I felt we lacked direction and that we were all bringing something to the table but not being able to be consistent with the approaches, I wanted the Preschool to be relaxed and open ended and after having completed the Anna Epgrave in the moment training realised that using the child’s interests and building on this to create a more child cantered approach worked well with our cohort of children, however we still lacked direction, on signing up for the course I really hoped that this would support us with mental wellbeing, self-regulation, behaviour management and the links with the outside being that we are a Forest School setting.

I started the course...