Karen has been childminding for our little one from the age of 8 months, and first started with her in November 2017. We were very apprehensive about leaving him with someone due to his age, but after meeting Karen and her family we were put completely at ease. She has from the offset always made us feel welcome and comfortable and she genuinely has a love for all of the children she looks after. Her own children are fantastic with him and they have taught him so much in the 11 months he has been there. His development has come on leaps and bounds and he really enjoys being with and playing with the other children at the setting.

Karen ensures that they have activities that support their development and produces a lovely, I formative journal of activities and milestones, which as a first time parent has been invaluable. She has always been very helpful and thoughtful with any questions that we have asked and found out information regarding activities and things that we can do to support our child at home. We also use communication on a daily basis through ‘Whats app’ and ‘Baby connect’, which in the first few months was lovely as we got to see what his routine was, photos of activities that he had been doing and really kept us in the loop whilst we were at work. Even now we both love checking our phones at lunchtime to see what he has been doing, so we don’t miss out.

Karen ensures that they have lots of outings throughout the week, which we love as he really enjoys the outside. They have been on trips to Whipsnade Zoo, Wrest Park, Wardown Park, Dunstable Downs and Stockwood Park. She also takes him to one or two classes a week such as mininastics and rhyme time at the library, which I used to take him to and he still really loves – especially now he can dance to the nursery rhymes.
Overall, both myself and my husband are very happy with our son's childcare. Karen made the process so easy and clear, the policies were all easy to understand and any questions we had were answered quickly.

We would both very happily recommend Karen as a childminder.

• Overall
• Setting
• Cleanliness
• Food
• Communication