Choosing the right nursery furniture
A place of awakening, exploration, development, and communication, the nursery is a space where toddlers must be able to evolve safely and confidently. The choice of furniture and equipment for a nursery is essential because it must serve several purposes.
Indeed, it must meet the vital needs and learning needs of children. It must also contribute to the serenity of parents when they leave their child at the nursery. Finally, the layout must allow professionals to work properly and facilitate their missions thanks to ergonomic furniture and nursery equipment adapted to their needs.
Nursery furniture: how to choose it?
Here are some tips for choosing your nursery furniture and equipment:
Prioritize the child's well-being
One of the priority issues of developing your nursery is guaranteeing the children’s well-being. This involves respecting essential hygiene and safety standards and creating an environment conducive to the emotional safety of toddlers.
Through its furniture and equipment, the nursery must constitute a safe, warm space conducive to exploring the senses, and developing skills, self-confidence, and autonomy. All this while respecting the potential and needs of each child according to his age.
Consider your team's expectations
The layout of your nursery also affects the quality of your team's work. Your nursery furniture must allow her to be in the best position to adopt a comforting, friendly, and encouraging posture toward the children she accompanies. This intention translates into taking into account the needs of your team: by feeling considered and legitimate in its needs, it will be more motivated.
It is essential to provide the professionals of your structure with spaces conducive to the proper realization of their daily missions and all the equipment necessary to exercise these missions. In addition, well-chosen nursery furniture and a well-thought-out layout can facilitate work within your structure: easy monitoring from each space, equipment designed to relieve the back...
Don't forget that your nursery also welcomes families
A child’s entry into the nursery is an essential step for him and his parents. The nursery and its layout play a role in this process: that of de-dramatizing the separation by a friendly and reassuring environment but also by nursery equipment that accompanies the separation through play. Well thought out, the layout of your reception area allows families to separate and meet in complete serenity.
The layout of your nursery influences how parents perceive your structure and should help reassure them when they leave their child there. In this space, they must feel free to settle down to exchange with the multidisciplinary team if needed.
What furniture for his nursery? The essentials for every space
Nursery furniture for the reception area
Essential for the process of family separation, the ritual of reunion and dialogue with families, your reception area, must include suitable nursery furniture for:
- Perform administrative activities
- Organize a cloakroom area (coat rack, storage, undressing table ...)
- Receive parents to exchange with the team (reception terminal chairs, table ...)
Furnishing the dining area
The dining area of your nursery meets the requirements to ensure meals of impeccable quality. It is also a place of discovery and dialogue where children are educated about food. To choose the right nursery furniture for your dining area, think about the following:
- Respect the rules of cleanliness and safety
- Organize the space according to the ages and level of autonomy of each person (adapted tables and chairs, high chairs, etc.)
- Promote sharing during and around the meal (for example, by allowing the preparation of meals at the height of the child so that they can observe and participate)
- Think of seats adapted to professionals (5-wheel stool, seat with 360° backrest)
What nursery equipment is for the sleeping area?
Properly arranging your sleeping area means offering the child a safe place to take refuge and explore freely. Freedom depends, above all, on the implementation of essential elements to ensure the safety of children (socket covers, window blocks, etc.) It also includes nursery furniture suitable for children and adults.
Depending on the children's age and the nursery's educational principles, you can opt for different bedding solutions. Beds with high bars are intended for babies while sleeping on the floor and are more recommended for older ones to allow them to get up independently.
How to arrange the hygiene corner
The changing space must allow you to share an exclusive moment with the child while keeping an eye on the living space. It must contain the nursery equipment essential for cleanliness and change in an intimate configuration and respectful of the child (furniture or changing table, storage, changing mattresses, mattress protectors ...)
Ingenious solutions exist to optimize the space (for small spaces, for example, opt for a wall-mounted changing table) and to facilitate the work of nursery professionals (reduce monitoring, relieve the back ...)
If you have enough space, you can create a hygiene corner to allow children to wash their hands, face, and teeth independently (small mirror, basin, towel ...)
Play area: what layout?
Evolving and lively, the play area of your nursery is adapted to the constant exploration of children. It must be adapted to your structure's free games and directed activities. Some tips for properly furnishing this space and choosing your nursery furniture:
- The furniture should not be a visual barrier but, on the contrary, a path to guide the child;
- Play areas must be demarcated and marked so that children can differentiate and find their way around;
- Furniture and teaching materials must be accessible at the child’s height.
Nursery furniture allows visibility over the entire space
Nursery equipment adapted to major pedagogies
More and more nurseries are focusing their project on one of the most recognized pedagogies, such as Reggio, Froebel, or Montessori. It is important to choose suitable nursery furniture and teaching materials to serve the educational principles described by these methods.
Setting up a Montessori nursery
Maria Montessori based her pedagogy on the observation that children can have great autonomy, provided they benefit from a prepared environment. This approach begins by offering the child-adapted nursery furniture and involves providing educational material promoting the development of the child's different faculties: autonomy, concentration, language, sense, and intelligence...
In a Montessori nursery, allowing children to move freely while ensuring their perfect safety is essential. The choice of nursery furniture and equipment must be made in light of these priorities. It is also vital that children have easy access to the material during the various activities. The furniture chosen must therefore be adapted to their size.
In a nursery adapted to this concept, everything must be accessible. For example, in the sleeping area, this will result in floor mattresses for the little ones instead of toddler beds. This specific arrangement allows toddlers to enjoy optimal rest in complete freedom and safety.
Nursery equipment adapted to the Montessori method
Much more than a nursery equipment supplier
HABA uses its expertise in early childhood, developed over 80 years, to design furniture, games, and toys that promote the awakening and development of children.
Furniture and games, and toys designed for children
Our mission? Design spaces, fun, and toys designed to enable children to become autonomous, creative, and resourceful beings. To do this, we create spaces that promote the transmission of fundamental values, the development of faculties, and the awakening of the senses.
Developed in collaboration with early childhood experts, the nursery equipment offered by HABA meets the learning needs of children and encourages the development of all their skills: motor, emotional, cognitive... Our games and toys provide stimuli adapted to the faculties and learning needs of children at each stage of their evolution.
Furniture that is safe and inspired by nature
Compliance with sure cleanliness and safety rules is essential to the well-being and supervision of staff. That's why our products meet current standards and are tested many times. Our products are designed to ensure children’s physical safety and emotional security. This intention is reflected in the design of spaces where the little ones can feel protected and reassured: cocooning corners, areas to recharge their batteries...
Because children are more receptive when they learn from nature, HABA respects and are inspired by our environment to design its products, wood from sustainably managed forests and raw materials are omnipresent in our ranges, as are natural colors and soft and comforting decorative elements.
HABA nursery furniture, inspired by nature