Author: Tim Alderman

It doesn’t take me long to think of a ‘new topic’ when I realize what we offer to you, our parents.  To make it short and sweet I try to find a way to build communication with your baby. For us, it begins in the bathroom when I start with a  new child– I think of ways to get a smile. Sometimes it’s a funny face, but more often the slight touch of their cheek coupled with the face and smile.  If they are not responding I have silly sounds adults don’t normally make, and unique to your child once I find it.

As days turn into weeks and weeks into months, I expand the repertoire of silliness of things they look forward to experiencing, ways to expand verbal and even more important, non verbal communication. I stay fixated on developing as until we have 2-3 months interaction.

From there it goes into developing, if I can a pattern that they will recognize.  How it happens is when they first come in the room in the morning, they often run to me knowing I will take them setting on my chair, if not already full with other children. I want to identify what they want me to know is going on with them. In other words, I listen.

When a child has been with us more than a year is when these ways of understanding really start to pay off.  I try to understand when they will need to have their diaper change and change it before a rash develops.  If I am not changing enough, Cathy is there to remind me. We go through them to prevent you from ever seeing we haven’t done enough, it’s that simple. Older kids aren’t spared either. They are asked  to ‘go potty’ more than I could ever say.

Our daycare depends on whether you notice these ways of child interaction. The longer they are here, the more intricate the communication, and hence understanding develops. Cathy has a lot more of these than I do, and together we work with you to build a village of understanding for as long as you will allow us.

There is no substitute to have genuine communication and togetherness building happiness.

Mr ‘T’.

Fall is here and my comments this time are brief. Cathy and I work more closely than ever to provide the service you expect. She has found yet another new store to find cut-and-paste art for you child to learn from and be able to take home.

The idea here is to give them more they can use and I noticed that applies to all ages. The goal of course is teaching reading and to increase curiosity which makes it easier to sustain interest. The new videos we show also have expanded to Yoga as well as the Frogs we continue to use to teach ABC’s. They are singing the tunes in the back yard they get from the nursery rhyme music we play.

Music CD’s are played both for learning during school hours and classical music during nap time. I have recently found famous composers such as Back & Beethoven specifically used instrumental tunes to reach children in many ways. What a gift they gave that has lasted centuries.

Glad to have you son or daughter along for the experience learning at Cathy’s Village.

Mr. T

Returning from our ‘working vacation’, where we were able to get things done for our next school year. I am so happy to be with your child as we enter our eleventh year. Why am I so happy? Because my view is of gratitude for having this job as joy filled when I open the front door and find several children rushing to greet me.  August is our January and a chance to teach, in a new unit of time, all these smiling faces.

Cathy sets the tone and of course, with her selected curriculum, how much learning we can cram into this lone month without holiday distractions. My job, in addition to my time with your child, involves improving the environment to reduce places to fall outside and restocking the CD shelf inside with new versions of the ‘wheels on the bus go round and round’.. Yes we keep finding these old chestnuts in garage sales and ‘Just between Friends’  events..

Summer brings less fog, more heat and with 3 yards, more shade and variety of experiences such as wobble cushions. Once it gets too hot to stay outside, rest assured, the play room has just been checked to be sure the air scrubber is working properly, which bring up small piles dust bunnies to sweep along with almost no dust to breathe indoors.

It is my job to mitigate hazards and promote joy with every step I take as part of my job,

Glad to have your son or daughter along for their experience learning at Cathy’s Village.

Please check out our web site Cathysvillage.org to see the extent of Cathy’s education which has been recently posted.

Come gather around people and hear my song, listen to it now, it won’t
take long.

To the politicians don’t block the doorway, don’t jam up the halls, the
slow one now will later be fast, they who lose an election today will
later be tasked with leading our nation to rebuild it to last, for he
who gets hurt will be he who has stalled for the times they are
a-changin. Those are words from a master tune smith from my own youth,
Bob Dylan.

As a nation, our country is being tested as never before, we have
survived 250 years, this past week. But will be survive another. I have
been planning how to survive in ways that I can, and for those beyond
me, i put my faith in the ballot box, and the rule of law, globally. I
sent my last donation to help my party , and it has been been sent, I’m
not going to worry about it much more.

But on a personal basis, it’s my job to support Cathy and continue in
every way I can improve your child’s developing mind and body. All 3
play grounds are open, now that the weather has cleared and spring is
here, at last. We are looking for more children over two and Cathy has
lesson plans to facilitate each child’s growth. We also are making it
as affordable as we can as the economy takes a jolt by reducing your fee as your kid gets older, and easier to care for.

Thank you for reading my messages, I appreciate it so much.

– Mr. T

After a years long Covid siesta, the books I made in the early years of Cathy’s Village are finally back. She used to create them to customize the older children’s interest in reading, and with the new curriculum set to roll out next week, I have been repairing and adding new content she has discovered online.

I have also had to make adjustments and learn how to hold interest when refining my skills while also keeping to a tight schedule. This has always been a school, and the kids are adjusting to the fact the toys stay where they lay. Not that they don’t have fun, I try to make it so, but while I polish my technique they are learning every morning. And yes, get to play too..

I also have to adjust my body to keep up with them marching to music from our expanded CDs, courtesy of our supplier, ‘Just Between Friends’, before we even go outside. I can’t wait for the Kentucky Bluegrass to finish growing in the upper yard so it can be opened up as well.  The mats I placed over the slight bumps in the middle yard cushion infants as they fall on slightly uneven ground and get right back up without crying, all part of their learning.

We have a new customized set of teaching tools coming that will enhance Ms. Cathy’s teaching for this season of learning. You should notice new things they talk about at home soon. And the infants are there with them learning in a closely supervised outdoor fun environment. 

Mr. T

Well, spring has sprung, the Magnolia tree, which in front is rapidly shedding its leaves, says so. I have brought them out to the middle yard, our newest yard, giving it a kid workout. they played hard and slept longer. For those ready, I have been teaching clutching the sides of the big slide so that they learn to control how fast they will go. I watch carefully to make sure they do it safely or they don’t go.

Your children are developing social skills at their own pace, Ms. Cathy will be announcing a new program to be taught inside. I mainly work on creating fun places to visit ouside while trying to stay in the background so, as Chuck E. Cheese says, ‘A kid can be a kid’ at Cathy’s Village. Four can sit close by on the table or hob-nob in the circus tent nearby.

I have kept the upper yard, the longtime mainstay of running and trying to dig rocks under wraps for another month while seeing if Kentucky Bluegrass, supposedly stronger, takes hold, the last step in making all three yards mud free. We’ll see.

We still have oranges and lemons ready for picking, looking forward to blackberries, followed by another huge crop of apples, pears, and other fresh fruit. Sorry, the cherries didn’t make it.

Mr. T.

This letter is short and sweet. In a few short months we will be celebrating our tenth anniversary caring for children, July, to be exact. We started out taking kids to parks near and far because we had no park in our own backyard.

Last year, after a lot of fits and starts, the middle yard was finally complete. This year we
anticipate making full use of it once the tarps are removed and your child will be chasing friends with a sound of ‘whee’ in the upper yard and the shine on the new picnic table gets some real play. We also will have our web site up and running to allow more families taking notice.

I’m excited to see them having more fun in more places now that the work is complete.
Hope you will see the change too.

Mr. T