Lisa Murphy - Lisa Murphy on Being Child Centered

Lisa Murphy on BEING CHILD CENTERED

by Lisa Murphy, MEd

Published by Redleaf Press

10 Yorkton Court

St. Paul, MN 55117

www.redleafpress.org

2020 by Lisa Murphy

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted on a specific page, no portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or capturing on any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a critical article or review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper, or electronically transmitted on radio, television, or the internet.

First edition 2019

Senior editor: Heidi Hogg

Managing editor: Douglas Schmitz

Cover design: Renee Hammes and Charles Rue Woods

Cover photograph by Laura Olivas/Moment/via Getty Images

Interior design by Louise OFarrell

Image on designed by Todd Rohnke

Characteristics of play on . Reprinted with permission.

Why do children climb on adapted from The Developmental Benefits of Playgrounds by Joe L. Frost, Pei-San Brown, John A. Sutterby, and Candra D. Thornton, Washington DC: Association for Childhood Education International, 2004. Reprinted with permission.

Play types on adapted from A Playworkers Taxonomy of Play Types by Bob Hughes, London: Playlink, 2002 and Play Types by Play Wales, Cardiff: Play Wales, 2017. Reprinted with permission.

Typeset in Adobe Chaparral Pro

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Murphy, Lisa, M.Ed. author.

Title: Lisa Murphy on being child centered / by Lisa Murphy.

Description: First edition. | St. Paul, MN : Redleaf Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: This work provides an in-depth exploration of Lisa Murphys approach to working with children. The author outlines nine attributes programs need to build an environment thats child centered, where play, developmentally appropriate practice, and academic standards all come together under one roof. Using true-to-life examples, anecdotes, and her signature conversational style, this book presents and explores the true identifying attributes of a hands-on, play-based, child-centered environment Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019027891 (print) | LCCN 2019027892 (ebook) | ISBN 9781605546155 (paperback) | ISBN 9781605546162 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Play. | Early childhood education. | Child development.

Classification: LCC LB1139.35.P55 M86 2019 (print) | LCC LB1139.35.P55 (ebook) | DDC 372.21dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019027891

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019027892

It is not about play eliminating order, its about letting play flourish and thus optimizing order by minimizing it.

Shepherd Siegel, PhD, author of Disruptive Play: The Trickster in Politics and Culture

Contents

Acknowledgments

It is with heartfelt sincerity and gratitude that I tip my hat to those who assisted during this labor of love. First and foremost, to the UNCondo Crew, the ECE Nerd Collective , and the hive-mind that is social media. All yall provided support and feedback when I needed input from people, not just the results of a Google search. To those of you who tolerated my habit of processing ideas out loud, talking to an invisible audience that was for no ones benefit but my own as well as those of you who offered opportunities for interactive banter and dialogue. To my muse. You crazy thirsty beeyatch, I knew you didnt abandon me, but you scared me there for a minute. Thank you for coming back. Now get outta here, Ill let you know when I need you again. To PJ. Our story is just beginning, but I still want to acknowledge your role in supporting me at all stages of the entire process, especially when I thought my muse flew the coop. I am forever thankful for the space she and I came to call home as we pushed through and brought this bad boy to completion. To Kane. For making sure I left the house occasionally for a nice long walk to give my brain a break and for sitting under the table at my feet offering that silent kind of support that only a dog can provide. To the eagles who cried out both a morning and an evening alarm. And finally, last but certainly not least, to all the friends and family members I have not seen in what feels like forever. I cannot thank you enough for your ongoing patience as I put my nose to the grindstone in my efforts to give birth to book five.

I owe all yall a killer Taco Tuesday.

PART 1

Why Did I Write This Book?

HEY THERE! Whether you are new to the party and not familiar with me at all or a card-carrying, self-proclaimed groupie, I welcome you to my new book! I am very excited to share it with you, as its been bouncing around in my brain for a while now, just waiting for the best time to pop out. Truth be told, my muse got a little stubborn during the process, and for a moment I thought she mightve called it quits, so I let her rest (or do whatever it is muses do when they abandon their writers) and told myself to be ready when she came back. Which she did, in full force, about three months later. And now we have this, my new baby! Full disclosure: Ive never had a real baby (thats my sisters departmentshe has babies, two sets of identical twins, mind youI have books, but I digress), but I think a case can be made as to how the two are kind of similar. Especially the gestation part. This idea has been in my head for years! Then it took months to push it all out! But then, finally, after all the work, the complications, the anticipation, the weight gain, the aching back and sleepless nights, it arrived! Its here! Why hello and welcome, new wee baby book!

So lets get right to it: some of you are accustomed to my writing style, and some of you are not. But dont worry, youll figure it out pretty quick. I try to write as though I am talking to you, so for me, this is a two-hundred-page (give or take) conversation. And Id like to kick-start that conversation by giving you some perspective as to how I arrived at the place of writing the book that you have (thank you!) decided to read.

This book is not my first (its my fifth!). Im sure all authors are different, but for me, when I realize there is more to say about an idea or a concept, it might be time to write another book. When there is new information or data or research that supports (or negates!) a position, it might be time. When I notice that an existing idea has more depth than originally thought, it might be time. When folks start asking for one, it might be time too! This book is a combination of all of these things.

In my last book, Lisa Murphy on Play , I wrote about and explored in depth how having ongoing opportunities to create, move, sing, discuss, observe, read, and play (what I have come to call the seven things) makes a strong foundation that supports the house of higher learning. Inside this house of higher learning are all of the reading, writing, math, science, social studies (read: academic) expectations we have for children. The expectations themselves are not the problem; everyone wants children to eventually know how to read, write, understand how things work, spell, do math. The problem is that many of you reading this book are feeling pressure (whether actual or perceived) to begin building the house before the foundation.