Tammy’s Daycare is the recipient of a three-year-renewable federal preschool development grant. This is owner Tammy Kuehn’s third year with the grant. The grant aims to expand daycares in rural America. Kuehn has used the grant money to update her play equipment, add rubber mat flooring and shades in the outdoor play areas, transform the inside of her home “from a house to a daycare” and hire a childcare assistant, which allows Kuehn to have more children in her daycare.
Kuehn opened her daycare in 1995 – 27 years ago – and could take only seven kids under age 5 at a time back then. Now that she has received the grant and has become a group daycare and has an assistant, she can take nine children under age 5 with a license capacity of 12 children. She currently has nine children at the daycare full-time who are three and under and has an additional two kids after school.
Kuehn said she is serving eight families now with all but two of those families coming from Hanover and Linn.
Kuehn said it took more than a year to apply for the grant because of the paperwork, and she had to find a grant writer. There is still a lot of paperwork involved, and Kuehn said having a childcare assistant at the daycare allows her to do some of the paperwork during the day while the kids are there instead of working until 10 p.m. finishing the paperwork after the kids go home.
Before receiving the grant, Kuehn said she hadn’t updated her daycare toys and equipment “in so long.” After receiving the grant, nearly all of her toys and play structures are new.
“With the grant money I’ve rejuvenated and expanded all my daycare spaces inside and outside adding more to educational toys, technology devices, playground equipment, sensory toys and materials, furniture and equipment, hiring a daycare assistant, supplies and materials, [and] arts and crafts materials,” she said.
She expanded her outdoor play area when she converted her front lawn into a third fenced-in play area. That new front lawn area has black rubber mats for flooring, and there are two large shade canopies that keep that area out of the sun in the summer.
Kuehn said the kids spend four hours a day outside on the new toys and equipment.
Kuehn said she started her daycare when her son, Anthony, was 3 years old. The daycare allowed her to stay home with her two children. She said she has continued to run the daycare for 27 years because she “loves it,” and she likes being her own boss. She said she plans to run the daycare for another 10-to-15 years before retiring.
Her daycare is open Monday-through-Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Right now she has kids from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. five days a week. Watching up to a dozen kids for as long as 12 hours a day means a childcare assistant is essential. Kuehn said she has hired several assistants since she received the first round of grant money nearly three years ago, and good, reliable help is hard to find. Her most recent childcare assistant recently had a car accident, so Kuehn is relying on a local retired woman to help at the daycare during the day.
Kuehn said she is hiring a full-time or part-time childcare assistant, and the job might be a great fit for someone who is retired or taking online classes.
Tammy Kuehn has 9 children age 3 and under in her daycare now with a waitling list if any spaces open up. Most of her kids come from Linn and Hanover. The daycare kids now have a third play yard featuring new play equipment thanks to the federal grant she received. The new play yard has rubber mat flooring and shade canopies.
Haynes Mueller and Myles Bruna, above, play with one of the new pieces of equipment. Haynes Mueller and Sevie Jedlicka later pose on the big slide.
P.O. Box 316 Washington, KS 66968 P: (785) 325-2219 F: (785) 325-3255
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