My daughter was with Maxine since January 2020, full time (except for lockdown 1), until September 2022 when she went to nursery - however, because we were so happy with Maxine, and our daughter was so settled, we kept 1 day with Maxine until she started school in Sept 2024.

Maxine has been absolutely fantastic.  From the moment I met her, I knew she was the childminder for us - she is kind, warm, fun and extremely experienced and our daughter settled in immediately.  She took two naps when she was first with Maxine - which worked very well. Communication with Maxine was always brilliant, we had a WhatsApp group (Maxine, my husband and I) from the start, where we would share information and Maxine would keep us updated throughout the day with pictures.  At drop off and pick up we would always feel we were kept 100% up to date on what was going on.  Maxine would tell us about how much food our daughter had eaten, how much water had been drunk and what had been going on with nappies / later toilet trips.  

Maxine has a set of toys or theme every day set out on the play table, different each day, she taught our daughter, for example, her numbers and colours from such an early age, and many other things also.  There is a focus on both fun but also learning in a fun way.  In the summer, when it is hot, she has a huge shade she puts up in her garden and our daughter enjoyed, to give one example, water play and learning about sea creatures with models of various sea animals.   

She takes the children to the local parks and meets up with other childminders and they do things such as mini sports days, exploring in the forest area of our local park, talking about the seasons, insects etc.  This allows the children to socialise outside of Maxine's group, and prepare them for larger groups of children at nursery or school.  All this is done in an extremely safe and thought out way - I would trust Maxine with anything.  

I cannot speak more highly of Maxine as a childminder, she is absolutely brilliant.

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