Hello, thanks for visiting my website. My name is Tina and I became an Ofsted registered childminder in May 2007. I live in Stamford , Lincolnshire with my Fiancé Karl, a computer technician, and our son Kian. We have a spacious family home on the outskirts of town with a large, safe, fully enclosed back garden and separate playroom. We have two dogs, two cats and some tropical fish, all of which have extremely good temperaments and are great with children, even the fish! The dogs have their own special area of the garden so that the grass is kept clean for the children to play on. All of our pets are very good natured and Kian quite happily strokes the dogs or pokes his feet through the gate to feed them his slippers! They think the world of him and him them and the same goes for our cats. They’ll withstand quite a lot of patting and tail pulling before they escape to the calmness of their own room upstairs! They never get angry and seem to understand he is just a curious toddler. Although I trust our pets completely, it goes without saying that any interaction with your child would always be supervised.
So, what about me? I'm a true Stamfordian born and bred and was educated at Bluecoat and Queen Eleanor schools. I've always wanted to work with children and whilst at secondary school carried out my work experience at a local nursery. I have to admit whilst I loved playing with the children and making sure they were happy and healthy, my experience of that particular nursery environment really disappointed me, it wasn't what I expected at all. Of course I realise that not every nursery is the same, but I always thought that when I had a child I would much prefer them to go to a childminder. To be honest my experience at that nursery is the reason I never went into working in childcare. Instead I went into the administration world and had a successful career for 15 years until the birth of my son in July 2007. .
So, why choose a childminder? My own personal reasons for wanting to send my child to a childminder, and the great advantages in my opinion, is that they get plenty of individual attention due to the small number of children being cared for at any one time, are able to be spontaneous in their play, can keep to their normal routines, eat foods they like to eat at home, develop at their own pace without any expectations and experience a warm, loving home from home environment. I'm now lucky enough to be the childminder and currently care for George (19 months) and Evie (11 months) full time and sisters Ellie (10) and Maddie (9) after school each day. All the children I care for are great, I love them to bits, and they all get along very well together.
My aim is to provide a warm, safe, caring, fun environment in the absence of mum and dad. I remember being little and being cared for by a family friend whilst my mum was at work and it can be a pretty daunting thing for a small person in the wrong environment. I want the children in my care to feel happy and confident enough to be themselves and not be afraid to treat my home like their own. I include plenty of structured and free play time and story times each day with trips to the park, feeding the ducks, to the farm and other planned outings with parent's permission on a regular basis. I'll treat your children with the greatest of care and respect whilst they are with me, as if they were my own but with your guidance on all the important things like behaviour, meals, nap times, etc. You are the most important person in your child's life and developing a good relationship with parents is paramount so that I can offer you the best service and your child the best care.If you would like to visit to see if your family would be happy in my care please telephone me for an informal chat or email me and we can arrange a mutually convenient time to meet. Hope to speak to you soon!
Take care, Tina x
