I feel like I’ve been living under a rock, apparently, since it’s only been very recently that I’ve learned anything about this new hygge buzzword.
In case you’ve been living under the same rock as I have, I’m happy to educate you on this simple little word that I have been trying to live by long before I knew it was an actual thing!
What is hygge
It’s a Danish word (pronounced hue-guh) that basically means to find joy, warmth and general coziness is the everyday extraordinary ordinary.
For me, I find hygge in dogs snuggled at my feet, a warm cup of tea in my hand, a fire dancing merrily in the fireplace, and a good book in hand. I find it in children curled up in homemade quilts engrossed in a book, or in sheep huddled together in our hundred year old barn.
In a word, hygge is magic. It’s the simple, cozy magic that every day affords if you only take the time to look for it.
It really comes down to finding thankfulness and gratitude in the little things and relishing in and appreciating them.
Hygge in homeschooling
If you’re anything like me, I can lose the joy of homeschooling pretty quickly. Each year I am intoxicated with the idea of fresh unit studies, romantic field trips and the smell of unused notebooks. By midyear, I got nothin’.
Cold winter days, whiny students, and a lack of organization all contributes to my lack of motivation. Year after year, about this time, I wake up and moan and groan to my hubby about having to do another day of the same old, painful schooling.
That’s when I discovered hygge. My friends, this has helped so much to add life back to our schooling and unity and harmony. Not perfection, mind you. I want to emphasis that if any of you are like me, always looking for the answer to create the absolute perfect solution to any problem. I’m sorry to say, it doesn’t exist. However, the good news is, if you can keep this focus, it really will help you to find more joy in this labor of love!
1.Create Cozy Atmosphere
There are so many ways to create a warm, cozy place to do your homeschooling. We used to meet at our dining room table and the kiddos would be fidgety and uncomfortable. We still do some things there, but we do a lot snuggled up under blankets on our cushy furniture, in front of our electric fireplace (as long as the kiddos can concentrate). Disclaimer: there are times when we have to put the blankets away because they can get too cozy and we can get too comfortable and not accomplish much.
Some other simple ways to add to the calming atmosphere:
*light candles
*turn on soothing music (as an added bonus, you can add it to your art/music appreciation subject)
*pretty notebooks
2. Cozy eats and treats
Sometimes we just will bake something for cooking class, which is cozy in itself. Sometimes it’s something healthy, sometimes it’s brownies loaded with caramel. Sometimes we just snuggle up with something warm like chai tea or hot chocolate.
3. Cozy activities
My favorite thing about homeschooling is how much it is a creative outlet. Schooling at home always you to make learning fun and imaginative. We will play games, listen to classic audiobooks, read stories together, or watch documentaries,just to mention a few of the hygge things we incorporate into our school days. We scour the library for books that are mysterious or interesting or just fabulous classics. We also check out mounds of audiobooks, or we listen to something on librivox which has a huge plethora of classic books and stories and YouTube, Netflix or Amazon Prime has all kinds of resources for historical documentaries or science programs geared for elementary kids. If your kids are anything like mine, these often hands on activities actually help them to learn better because of their learning style.
We also keep thankful journals and will spend some quiet time writing things we are thankful for.
All of these activities also are great ways to connect with your kids and to create great conversation starters.
4. Tea Time
We have started doing tea and poetry in the afternoons. There’s so much hygge to be had in an activity like that. We sometimes don hats and scarves and put on atmospheric, classical music. We sometimes speak in British accents and put up our pinkie fingers. For older kids, it can still be a connecting time without the silliness. We read and dissect poetry. Sometimes we read poetry we’ve written ourselves. Either way, it’s a great time of connecting.
I may do a part two to this because there are so many ways to add this cozy and comfort to foster connecting in your homeschooling. Not all days are like this, but every time we start with something like this, it helps the rest of the day to be more successful and connecting. If you are parents of special needs like we are, and especially if you have kids with attachment disorders, implementing hygge can really help be encourage bonding.
More to come, my friends!
Support For Adoptive Parents 