By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Cathleen Kroeger of Ellis is looking for children to enroll in her Cat's Child Care in Ellis.
Kroeger, 38, became a child care provider in 2020. She was working as a children's librarian at the Hays Public Library, but was facing the challenge of enrolling three of her children in child care. She said that it did not seem practical at the time.
"It was pretty boring only having three kids to take care of," she said.
"Child care seemed like the perfect fit," she said. "I was able to work with kids again, having more kids to take care of and do some of the things I think are fun along with my kids."
Kroeger has six children. Her step-daughter is 12, and she also has children aged 11, 9, 7, 1, and 2 months.
Kroeger said she has always loved working with children.
She has a degree in psychology from Kansas State University and took many courses in early childhood development while working on her degree.
Although Kroerger does not have a formalized preschool curriculum, she said she focuses on developing creativity and problem-solving skills through play.
"My favorite part is when you are working with a kid, and they get it," she said. "You worked on it, worked on it, worked on it, and you've seen the kid go through all of the frustration and then getting some proficiency and then all of a sudden they get that proficiency, and they get that mastery level, and they are just so proud of themselves."
She said she tries to help the children build life skills, such as putting on their shoes or zipping their jackets.
Even very young children can help pick up a toy. She thanks the child and praises them for being helpful.
"I try to pick moments to tell them about things," she said. "When we are out on a walk, I'll hand them some leaves and talk about how this feels cruncky and 'Look at the color. That's brown.' They're learning things naturally.
"They're little sponges. If you engage them in conversation about things over and over throughout the whole day, they pick up a lot."
She said these daily life lessons help build kindergarten readiness. The students who leave her child care to go to kindergarten generally know their colors and have started to learn numbers and some letters.
"I don't have them sitting down doing worksheets. It's not like a curriculum or institution-type setting. It's learning through play and their own curiosity."
Being in a child care home rather than a center, Kroeger said, allows her to focus more on the individual needs and development of children.
She said she loves to take the children on field trips. They go to parks in Ellis and Hays, the swimming pool, the Sternberg Museum, the Hays and Ellis libraries, and even out of town to the zoo.
Kroeger tends to have school-age children during the summer. She asks on the parent form what types of activities the children would like to do and what their interests are.
One child was interested in the solar system. Kroeger obtained appliance boxes from the hardware store, and the children created a spaceship.
They used sidewalk chalk to draw the layers of the atmosphere, then "flew" their spaceship through the atmosphere into space.
Kroeger, who rides a motorcycle, likes to take the children on bicycle rides. She has several toddler balance bikes for the younger children.
"I have a really cute picture from one summer. I was full. I had 10 kids. There was a line of all 10 of them on the little bikes. We stopped, and they looked back at me, and I snapped the photo. I always said that was my little biker gang," she said.
On another occasion, she took a group of seven boys outside to play after the rain. They all jumped into a giant mud puddle.
"Those boys had a blast," she said. "They were covered in mud. ... I try to keep those things alive—the everyday things that you would get to do as a kid, especially some of those things as parents we don't enjoy because it makes a big mess.
"I had several parents comment at pick up, 'I'm glad they got to do that with you and not at my house,'" she said.
Kroeger also brings some of her experience from working as a librarian into her child care home, including reading books and singing songs.
Her favorite book is "Nuts: Sing and Dance in Your Polka Dot Pants" by Eric Litwin. He performed at the Hays Public Library during her tenure there, and she was able to visit with him about his books.
She attended a special training session for librarians on physical exercise, along with learning math and literacy skills, which can help children build connections between the two hemispheres of their brains and better retain these skills.
She is also certified as an instructor in noncorrosive potty training and elimination communication. She starts potty training at 18 months old in the child care. The children in her care are usually reliably potty-trained and wearing underwear by age 2.
Kroeger said her most significant challenge, at the moment, is finding children to fill her child care slots. She currently has no children enrolled. She said she has an opening for one infant in addition to older children.
You can contact Kroeger at 785-477-1277 or [email protected] or follow Cat's Day Care on Facebook.