ABSTRACT
The Hungarian professional pedagogical approach is play-based and child-centred in an unconditional loving atmosphere, the main principles of Hungarian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The education programmes of the Hungarian kindergartens draw another valuable aspect from the Hungarian traditions – namely, the home preservation of food. Hungarian kindergarten life is rooted in decades of integration of the natural environment. A special Hungarian way of relating children to nature is the 'institution' of the open-air kindergarten. Other activities done together with children model the family farm along with its traditional nature and support sustainability; these are part of the educational and pedagogical methods of the kindergartens in terms of sustainability. Kindergarten pedagogues also invite parents and grandparents to show them specialties that can be cooked in the courtyard of the kindergarten, on open-air stoves, in a cauldron or in an oven.
