Today we’d like to introduce you to Marie Catrett.
Hi Marie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve been working with children in Austin for over twenty years. In 2011, I opened Tigerlily as a home-based childcare program in my living room, and it quickly encompassed the first floor of our house! It was empowering to take the best of what I’d learned about supporting children’s growth and creating our place to be together. An important part of my work that started then was my daily documenting of our learning. This continues to this day- every day I’m with children; I take notes and some photos of the happenings that interest the children. After our teaching day ends, I sit at my kitchen table and create a story to share with the families and children. We use this documentation to reflect on our continued work together. I paused when my second child was born in 2018, then built slowly to a small pod during the pandemic. That was such a hard time for everyone working in childcare. I watched all of us trying to figure out how to navigate the care of children, COVID protocols, and assessing risk to our families. Covid showed me that our time here is limited and not guaranteed. I saw my son nearing preschool age and wanted to connect with a world beyond my living room this time. To paraphrase Mary Oliver, what do you want to do with your one wild and precious life?
The best parts of me made Tigerlily and supporting young children and their families is my life’s calling. I called out on social media, saying I was ready to grow and asking friends to help me think about places in our community that might have room for my small program to be out in the world. I was especially interested in having my school join a space that might not have been a childcare center before but was surrounded by community, maybe next to a coffee shop or other small business where people gather, and life is happening. Teri Sperry at Alt Ed Austin thought the church at Uprising might be open to such an arrangement, and I am grateful every day that we found a home in their community building and are now in our second year of operation there. The nearest coffee shop is just down the road at the Thicket Food Park. We have access to a kitchen supporting the Golden Generation Meals on Wheels seniors group, who now come to our classroom as unique guest readers and cheer for our children when we bake our birthday muffins. We have found a home and a community.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Childcare is hard. I will get on my soapbox and say I hope I see a change in everything about this industry in my lifetime: teachers are underpaid, and childcare workers even more so. Meanwhile, many families can’t afford the tuition even to come close to providing childcare workers with a living wage. As a society, we should decide that investing in childcare professionals and high-quality childcare is worth it. This started during COVID with some helpful government grants for childcare, including smaller programs in our area. We need so much more of that. I am stepping off my soapbox- my struggles. Caring for children is such important, intensely emotional work. It can be hard to turn off my work brain and remember I have other roles in my life, like being a parent or a friend and doing the laundry.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Tigerlily Preschool?
Tigerlily believes children are capable and confident problem solvers, curious about challenges, and greatly delight in expanding their world knowledge. Creative expression is central to a vibrant childhood; children draw, paint, collage, sculpt, and build. With daily access, art mediums become powerful languages for children to express their ideas and think together. Also, getting messy is extremely fun. Every day in a preschool classroom is a day to make things better with each other. We are a community of inclusion, creating a safe and good-feeling school for everyone. Tigerlily is a class of twelve children, ages 3-5, with two excellent teachers.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
So much good luck, here is a list:
- Orbiting the sun on a habitable planet.
- Discovering a lifelong career in my early twenties. To quote a friend, “You seem like you’d be a good preschool teacher.”
- I landed in South Austin several decades ago and built deep connections with families here.
- Finding a dreamy location within our community, amongst trees, just off of the hustle of South 1st Street.
- Getting through the process with the city coding to change our building’s classification to operate as a childcare facility.
- Attracting other passionate, talented, inspired caregivers to support our work together.
Contact Info:
- Website: tigerlilypreschool.com
- Facebook: Tigerlily Preschool
