Clarisse has been superb and I would recommend her to anyone looking for a trustworthy, reliable, fun and caring child minder.

She looked after Jack and Lottie for approximately 1.5 years from 6-9 months old, and we only left because we moved to Staffordshire, otherwise they would still be with her today!

Clarisse provides a fun and stimulating environment for learning from: singing; reading; doing endless crafts and painting – each of them usually having a learning element behind them (learning new words or objects); taking them to her allotment to help plant flowers and vegetables; and taking them to play groups and local parks on sunny days.

Clarisse also made sure the children were very much ‘home from home’ and did a great job of supporting us with their general development for continuity. This relates to the development of their speech, good manners, eating (with cutlery!), walking, sharing toys, and understanding boundaries etc.

Clarisse cares for more children after school, which was great for Jack and Lottie who love to play with older children, especially her daughter. All the children play really nicely together and can often be found playing games in her garden.

We spend a lot of time in France and upon request Clarisse spoke and sang to the children in French. Jack first counted to five in French and went on to understand and respond to a lot of words (e.g. he would collect his shoes when asked by her in French) - we were amazed and delighted. A fabulous bonus for us!

In addition to an update at the end of each day, Clarisse would also WhatsApp me updates and send me pictures of the children during the day. It was lovely to hear how the children are getting on and hearing about the little things that happened - this information is really precious for parents to feel like they are not missing out on the things their little ones get up to.

Clarisse also babysat for us, which was great to have someone who understood the children and their routines. She also looked after Lottie over night at very short notice, when our son Jack was hospitalised with Croup Cough for several days in 2015. The whole experience was quite terrifying and we had no family living near us at the time to have Lottie. Clarisse was such an amazing help, although it must have caused quite a bit of disruption to her own household, she didn’t even contemplate not looking after her. It just another testament to how fantastic she is.

Clarisse has been a very important person to our family and in the early stages of Jack and Lottie’s lives, which has helped them grow into the wonderful children that they today.

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