Our son has been looked after by Linda for the last 15 months or so now since he was about 20 months old. I cannot praise her skills as a childminder enough - she is simply wonderful.

Linda works from her home which is not only spotless, but well geared up for children with a wide range of toys and play areas. Every day she takes the children to some form of playgroup / stay and play / mini-nastics etc so he is still getting plenty of socialisation, plus he goes in the buggy for the school runs so he gets to be outside and experience the hustle and bustle of the school.

Linda provides food for our son - (however i believe you have the option to provide your own), he's going through a very fussy phase at the moment and Linda is very patient and tries him with a wide variety of different foods and feeds back to us which ones have been successful. She's very flexible and has helped us on occasions when we've been stuck late at work or needed to swap a day (where she has space).

Linda is an absolute natural with children, its very plain to see how much she loves and nutures children, shes very creative and our son constantly comes home with different things he's made/painted etc. Her communication is fantastic, everyday we get photo updates - which is just what you need when you're busy with work. She's very easy to talk to and receptive to any ideas, thoughts, feedback.

If you're considering using Linda the I highly recommend her, we've never had any doubts or concerns or issues and when it comes time for our son to start school I will genuinely be gutted to leave her.

• Overall
• Setting
• Cleanliness
• Food
• Communication