Mariedoo

An outstanding childminder in every way

Marie was the first non-family member that we ever left our 1 year old daughter with, and we couldn’t be happier with not only the level of care, but the home-from-home environment she provided. Marie nurtured our baby in a way that made us feel relieved and reassured at first, then happy and fully content over time. We realised the confidence our little one had developed when only after a week or so, she marched into Marie’s self-assured and excited to spend time there. She was always happy to be left at Marie's. Marie engaged brilliantly with our daughter, embraced who she was (including her well-loved beaten-up teddy bear) and pushed her development, to the point she learnt so many new things (including feeding herself independently) under Marie’s care. She cooked lovely nutritious home-made food that our daughter loved (we were told on a weekly basis that she ‘ate well’), and took her to interactive play days every time she was with her, which our daughter benefited so much from. Marie kept a log of everything that took place while our daughter was in her care – it’s a lovely little book that we’ll treasure forever. We owe so much to Marie for socialising and increasing our daughter’s confidence, and we can’t recommend her highly enough. I’m only disappointed that my daughter couldn’t have spent more time with Marie, but sadly we had to move away from the area. An outstanding childminder in every sense. Thank you, Marie!

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by Fay about Mariedoo on 08/10/2023

We call her Marie Poppins for a reason!

The reviews are all true, Marie is the best person you could possibly wish for to look after your child. She looked after our little boy a couple of days a week from 3 months old and we had no concerns at all because we knew he would be as well looked after as if he were home. She has helped shape him into a happy, confident and sociable little boy and we couldn’t be more grateful. His face lights up when he sees Marie’s house and we know he has the best time with her. All of our friends and family know about Marie - we call her Marie Poppins because she is the dream childminder- really lovely and friendly but takes no nonsense- our boy always does what Marie tells him to do. When we decided we needed to move for more space, the only thing we both didn’t want to leave for was Marie! We wish Marie could look after Fox forever. We hope she will still be childminding in five years and we can move back to north London and reunite Fox with her!

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by Bee F about Mariedoo on 07/08/2023

Wonderful childminder

Our little girl was with Marie from age 11 months until 2.5 and it was honestly the best start for her in a wonderful setting. Heading back to work and leaving her with Marie, I felt so reassured and happy that she was being so well looked after. We wanted her to have that bit more attention than a busy nursery but also the benefit of being with other children so this was a perfect combination of the two.
Not only did they do great activities at her house with lovely garden, they went out every morning on trips to farms, parks, groups with lots of other children and even places like the Transport Museum - she was seeing such fabulous and exciting places!
The food was homecooked and delicious and we often heard how our little girl would want more!
The best thing for us was the communication and updates we got each day, something my friends weren't always getting from their nurseries - we had a one to one chat with Marie at pick up to hear what had happened that day and also received a book at the end of the of the day with a brilliant update. Not only that Marie created a beautiful large book of photos documenting their activities and how it related to the early years skills. This is something we still treasure now!

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by N19Mum about Mariedoo on 26/03/2022

Response by Mariedoo on 26/03/2022:

Thank you Lyndsey for the fantastic review and your kind words. I really appreciate it.

An exemplary and wonderful childminder

My daughter attended Maries 4 days between the age of 1 and 3.5 years. Marie’s became a second home for her where she absolutely loved going because it was a loving, homely, stimulating, fun, safe and supportive environment where the children flourished. Marie is a wonderful childminder who genuinely loves her work and it shows in everything she does.

Marie puts a lot of time into planning the week, from trips to activities at home to snacks and food (my daughter (now 5) still talks about Marie’s food and how she wishes I could cook more like her!) Marie also has an educational focus to her activities and encourages the children from an early age to think about letters and numbers, writing their names etc. (things I would never have thought to do at home!).This set my daughter in very good stead when she started school. There is lots of reading and LOTS of creative work - drawing, painting, stencils, collages, glueing etc. and lots of physical and messy play in the garden with water, play doh, clay, sand, dried pasta, you name it!

We loves that Marie expects respectful and kind behaviour from the children (towards the other children and adults) and she is fair, clear and compassionate in how she ‘works’ with them. She has a well-thought out routine that the children love and thrive off - there is always something going on and the children have busy, stimulating days (but it’s a calm and organised used kind of busyness).

As a parent, choosing who to leave your child with when you go to work is one of the biggest decisions you have to make…I lost count of the number of times I thought how lucky we were to have found Marie.

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by emmalj about Mariedoo on 30/01/2022

Excellent childminder

Our son was with Marie and her assistant from around 12 months to 2.5 years old. He was so happy there and the care he received was brilliant. He was so cared for and developed a lot of confidence during his time there. We were very sad to have to leave when we moved out of London and, even now, he talks about Marie and his friends. Marie provides such a huge range of activities for the children and takes time to make a scrap book for each child, with photos and details of what they have been up to. Our son still loves it look through this with us to remember his time there. I would not hesitate to recommend Marie to anyone.

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by Neens about Mariedoo on 03/08/2020