On bad weather days, Sandra Waite converted her garage to a playground for the young charges in her day-care/preschool business. She changed careers recently, switching from a nursing career to day care and preschool. World Photo by Lou Sennick

One might suspect there’s a day care nearby. Walking up to Sandra Waite’s front door in North Bend, you can’t help but hear children’s music playing inside the home.

“Meow, meow, meow,” sings children’s tune.

An automatic alert buzzer goes off and Waite opens the door. Inside is a coffee table with an aquarium as its base. A young girl yells that she needs help getting her foot loose. It was wedged in a walker.

Later, three toddlers — ages 1, 2 and 3 — and Waite sat at a redwood picnic table. They shared a lunch of green salad and macaroni and cheese. One youngster made a face and spit out his lettuce.

This is the everyday life for Waite, a 57-year-old grandmother of 16, since she opened her day care, Nana’s Kids, about a month ago.

A registered nurse for 28 years, Waite said she finds watching children much easier than her previous profession.

“Being around kids and taking care of them and changing diapers — I find it not like work,” she said.

“It’s more, like something that comes naturally.”

This is not Waite’s first experience working with children. Waite’s first job as a nurse was in the newborn nursery at a hospital in Tarzana, Calif.

“That was fun!” Waite said.

She worked in pediatrics at a hospital in Chico, Calif., and in an intensive care unit in Paradise, Calif. When she first moved to North Bend six years ago she cared for a girl on a respirator for about a year. Then she took care of her mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease, until she died last year.

Waite said she finds watching children uplifting after all the seriousness.

“That’s part of the charm,” she said. “It’s not depressing like when I was taking care of kids in pediatrics.”

Waite said she left the nursing profession for another reason, too. Over time she became discouraged with the direction health care was going.

“Our health care system is so broken now,” Waite said. “It’s not very rewarding. The bottom line is money, money, money. It’s disheartening. It’s gotten worse and worse.”

Waite has worked to convert her home, at 2192 Ohio St., into a fun place for kids. She decorated the walls in red and pink with whimsical decals.

“eBay’s got tons of this stuff,” she said. “I bought every little stick-um.”

There is a green bathroom decorated with frogs, a toy room and a nap and TV room with little beds and sleeping bags. A garage holds more toys and a glider. Waite is working on a climbing net and plans to build a swing in the back yard. She is teaching the children their ABCs, colors, shapes and reads to them and plays music.

“I was hoping to get special-needs kids or parents who want to be more secure in the care of their kids,” Waite said.

The business has room for one child younger than 2, two more ages 2 to 6, plus four older children after school.

“People have to work, so I know the kids are staying somewhere, so I think that the kids are staying with their grandmas more than they used to,” she said.

Less than six months after her mother died, Waite lost her husband to a heart condition. She now works 12-hour days during the week, but is thinking of expanding to weekends to make ends meet.