✨"What am I doing, why am I doing it, who am I doing it for?" ~ Lisa Murphy

Typically when we go inside from outdoor play we take off our gear, wash our hands then meet on the carpet for a gathering time- others may call it circle time, it’s certainly never a circle, it could be a half moon, an oval, a square, but more often then not it’s chaos and sometimes a mosh pit 🤣

During this time we hang up our owl names on the tree then do whatever… read a story, play a game, talk, whatever the children want. On this particular day, we came in, took our gear off, washed our hands and I met them at the carpet with the hopes to read the story, “The very hungry caterpillar” as we had just gotten our caterpillars and I really wanted to read it.

​A few children were straggling along getting their outdoor gear off and washing hands and the others were getting restless and they started hopping around from one mat to another and soon others joined and it became a game. There was laughter, turn taking, patience, perseverance, negotiation, frustration, joy, team work, and most of all ~ it was led by the children.

“Hey guys watch out, look out, look at me, watch this, 3,2,1!, look I can jump to D’s spot…..”

​I snuck away and went about my business. They continued on this play for about 5 minutes and then they they slowly meandered off into their own play elsewhere with no mention about having a gathering time.

My program is about the children, it’s child centered, I follow their lead. It’s not about me and what I want to do. I will share with them somethings that I like to do and go from there, however, I do not make them sit down, be quiet and read that story I wanted to read. That wasn’t important for them- jumping on the mats was important for them- that’s what matters and that’s the greatest learning of all!

And I reiterate: What am I doing, why am I doing it, who am I doing it for? ​