For the past 30 years, local residents have utilized the same option as a place for their children to stay in the daytime.
Houston’s Silly Daycare celebrated its 30th anniversary this August. Owned and operated by Cindy and Brian Sillyman, it was launched by Cindy in 1995 after she had worked for Head Start for six years and decided to stay home and watch over her daughter (who was born January of 1995).
From there, the day care operation more or less began itself.
Starting a legacy
“When people started to find out she was staying home, they would ask if she would mind watching their little girl or boy,” Brian said. “And then another one called, and another one called.”
“Within a two-week period, there were 30 kids wanting to be here,” Cindy said. “So I contacted the state to see what it would consist of to be licensed.”
A woman representing the state came by for an inspection and did something highly unusual, bypassing the standard steps on the path to licensing.
“She said ‘in all the 20 years I’ve been a state inspector, I’ve never done this before; I’m going to license you today,’” Cindy said.
Silly Daycare was originally licensed for 10 children, but demand from the community led Cindy to expand. She took some college courses and was able to increase the amount to 20, which technically qualifies the business as a “group home.”
Cindy is actually accredited for up to 60 kids.
“But we want to do just 20 so we can be more hands-on,” Cindy said. “If we hire someone else to do it, it wouldn’t be as heartfelt for me.”
Caring for children of all backgrounds
The facility hosts children ages 2 to 12. It began in the Sillyman’s house, but a dedicated building and backyard play area were later added. Children attending come from parents in a wide variety of backgrounds, including law enforcement officers, judges, politicians, doctors, school district officials and many more.
“We’ve seen people who do just about everything you can think of,” Brian said.
“People from the whole circle of life,” Cindy said.
Former attendees of Silly Daycare live in states all over the nation.
We call any child we’ve ever had our ‘forever kids.’ We tell them we’re going to love them forever.”
The City of Houston even presented Silly Daycare a “Forever Kids” award in 2021.
Cindy was born in Houston and grew up in Cabool, while Brian is also a Houston native who lived in Iowa for several years before returning to Texas County. Brian was working for the Schwan’s Company when switched gears and joined Cindy full time in the day care in 2001.
A typical day at Silly Daycare
A typical day for a kid at Silly Daycare involves many forms of learning. Attendees know and understand shapes, colors and the alphabet (forward and backward), and can even name the president, vice president and Missouri governor.
Cindy taught a day care class in Rolla some years ago. She said the main goal is to prepare kids for kindergarten and beyond.
“They learn nonstop from when they get here in the morning until they leave,” she said. “We focus on manners, kindness, sharing and all of those good morals things. They also learn about current events and even know state capitals.”
“We also talk about different types of jobs and all kinds of other things,” Brian said.
“We learn above and beyond, because these kids are a sponge,” Cindy said. “Just because they’re only 3 or 4 doesn’t mean they can’t learn; you can put water out for a sponge and some will quickly pick it up and some will more slowly pick it up. You never know.”
Problems are solved with compassion.
“You don’t have to be mean,” Cindy said. “These kids have learned through fun; it’s not demanding or ‘you have to,’ it’s done with fun. These are small humans, and you work them through their problems and help them learn how to react to them.”
The Sillymans consider building a bond with parents to be an important aspect of what they do.
“We tell them they’re part of our family forever,” Cindy said. “We have parents who have been through everything we’ve been through for 30 years. It’s amazing.”
The older kids typically arrive after school. Brian said they benefit from interacting with the younger ones, and vice-versa.
“Back when we had more of the older ones, the 2-year-olds were feeding off of them,” he said. “But the big ones were learning how to help the young ones in lots of ways, too.”
Decades of community impact
By caring for hundreds of local children over the years, Silly Daycare has affected countless local residents. Included is Brenda McGowen, who has had three grandsons attend and is a big proponent of the Sillymans’ operation.
“I can testify that they are amazing child care providers,” McGowen said. “Our community, school and especially our children benefit greatly from all they teach the children.”
I truly believe God gave me the gift of love for kids. They really are our future, and the better you are with them, the better they can be. I love having the chance to love them.”
Cindy Sillyman
The Sillymans enjoy working together.
“The best thing in the world is having my spouse here,” Cindy said. “Some people think you can’t work with your spouse, but we’re together 24/7, 365 and we enjoy doing everything together.” Silly Daycare is located at 6525 Lilly Road in Houston. The phone number is 417-967-4972.
