Tina Str

Great childminder

I was really nervous about leaving my 11 month old son with a child minder but Tina was great! Her house feels like a little nursery and is set out specially for the children with bright wallpaper and full of toys, books etc.

Tina and her Sister Marion are great with the kids, treating them like family and my son settled really well. They keep to your child’s own routine and at the end of the day give you a full update of how they have been, how they ate and slept.

As the youngest there my son loved trying to play with the older kids who all seemed really good with him, it’s a real family environment and he has really come out of his shell by spending time there

I would highly recommend Tina

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by georgina about Tina Str on 07/02/2019

Response by Tina Str on 07/02/2019:

Thank you Georgina. Will really miss your little man, he is a credit to you both, anytime you need a few hrs to yourself pop him in, glad to have him x

a home from home for my children

I have 2 children who both go to Tina’s. My eldest has been there for 3 years, and my youngest started in August 2018 when she was 8/9months old.

Tina and Marion look after them both as if they were their own. My eldest really enjoys spending time there and has got to know all the children so well as they have all been looked after by Tina for such a long time together. They are like a little extended family.

The children do lots of activities. Regularly take trips into town. If there’s a birthday, Tina will throw a little party for them. She really makes their time spent their so special.

My eldest always wants to be the last kid collected from Tina’s at the end of the day. She even tells me she wants to stay the night. A testament to how at home she feels at Tina’s house.

My youngest (14 months) has a daily diary, which includes all details of her day. I am informed on her general well-being, what she’s been up to during the day, what time she has napped and how long she napped, how many dirty nappies she had, how much she ate and if she took her bottle. Very thorough and great to read once I get home.

Highly recommend Tina and Marion

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by emilyf about Tina Str on 24/01/2019

Response by Tina Str on 28/01/2019:

Thank you for such a lovely review. Happy enough to keep her over night ( both of them ) any time. They are a pleasure to look after. X

Warm and attentive with excellent facilities

When we moved to Inverness in May 2018 we had to take our 2 year old son out of the nursery he was happy in and I was very concerned about finding the right place. I originally looked for a nursery but Tina was recommended to me and we went to meet her. The environment was lovely and stimulating and clean with lots of toys and books. We loved Tina as she is so warm and personable and James took to her straight away. It is like a mini nursery at Tina’s and her sister Marion works with her and is equally lovely and fun. Between them they look after a lovely bunch of kids. They offer all the activities and outings at a nursery but also a good balance of structure and fun.

The thing that I liked most was that if your child has an off day they notice and are nurturing. My son isn’t a good sleeper and on an off day he will be bundled up on a beanbag with a blanket to watch a Disney film and have a wee nap. This is the sort of thing that just couldn’t happen at a nursery.

James is now three and loves copying the older children and playing with the little ones and it’s a really family environment. James loves Tina and Marion like family and I know he is happy and cared for much in the way I would myself. They really pay attention to his personality, what he is good at and what he likes and each day they complete a diary to tell me what he’s been up to and what he has eaten and so on. We get pictures and crafts to bring home. Little parties for special occasions and birthdays. I can hardly get him to come home!

Tina provides snacks/drinks/fruit and we take healthy lunch (Tina encourages no treats as they bakewith the kids - pancakes are a favourite - they they have these as a treat).

It’s all just worked out better than we could have hoped.

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by Alison about Tina Str on 18/01/2019

Response by Tina Str on 28/01/2019:

Thank you Alison, kind words. Your boy is a wee smasher great fun to care for. X

Outstanding commitment to wellbeing of children

I have had the pleasure to work with this childminder on a personal and professional level.

Firstly, my daughter has been in Tina's home and care on many occasions and has thoroughly enjoyed the time that she spent there. I might add that my daughter was as young as 9 months old when she spent time in Tina's home and she was given the best of attention. The room is bursting with toys, all clean and easily accessible to the children at all times. Her home is a delightful place to be and has a welcoming feel, all down to her!

Secondly, I have worked on a professional level with Tina. I am a fully qualified secondary teacher of Modern Languages and run my own French classes for children. Tina approached me and asked me if I would be willing to come and teach the children in her care French on a weekly basis. It is worth mentioning that Tina is way ahead of the game here in terms of implementing the early years curriculum as Scotland is just trying to get to grips with introducing modern languages in the primary school from P1. To see a childminder willing 'to go the extra mile' for those in her care at such a young age is testament to how much she values their learning. It might also be worth pointing out that she was willing to pay for this service given the small numbers of children involved. Each week when I arrived the children would greet me with 'Bonjour' and they were clearly encouraged to practise their French without me.

With regards to the wellbeing of children, if we look at the Scottish Government's indicators SHINARI (safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible, included) Tina's child minding services certainly excels in all of these aspects. I particularly liked how she encouraged the children to be independent, a very important quality as we send our children off to primary schools where the ethos of Curriculum for Excellence is all about fostering successful and independent learners.

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by Fiona about Tina Str on 07/06/2017

Response by Tina Str on 08/06/2017:

Thank you Fiona for the great review. The children really enjoyed your teaching, I was amazed at how quickly they learned. Your teaching skills are brill, easy, fun and professional. I even learned a few words myself. X

Experiance with our 9 month old son

Putting our son to this childminder did not work for us. We decided to go with this childminder based on the very positive score (5 stars out of 5) on this site although there was only one review available. Other than attending a few introduction hours, our son attended overall 4 days within a 2 weeks period. At this time he was just over 9 months old (unable to crawl) and was the only child younger than one year, all the other children were able to walk and play with each other.
The area of the house where the children were kept was a hall, where there wasn’t enough day light, a hard wooden floor which the kids sat on, not colourful or cheerful and in our opinion not at all child friendly. There were no wall stickers, bright colours or posters which could significantly improve the impression of the room.
There were 8 kids including our son and the childminder had an assistant to help out. We felt the staff to kid ratio was already poor (which we found out later on) with 4 kids to 1 minder, adding a baby younger than one year to this mix was not a good decision and we should have been informed early on how busy they were.
Unfortunately, we did not hear one positive thing from the childminder about our son. “He is too heavy, I will have such big biceps from carry him.” (He was a normal healthy weight, there are charts for it.) “He was too grumpy, he did not want to eat, he did not want to sleep, he wanted to be picked up and carried all the time, as soon as we put him on the floor he started crying. He was too wriggly when we changed his nappy.” Not one positive statement was said about a 9 month old baby!
We’re not sure what this childminder was expecting? to put a 9 month old baby on the floor let him entertain himself? We found the whole set up very unprofessional, especially to blame a baby instead of taking responsibility for their lack of resources or capability. The childminder’s refusal to accept responsibility for the fact she could not cope with a baby, brought me to conclude that she had become complacent whilst caring for older kids and was therefore incapable of giving a younger child the care and attention required.
We paid £80 per 2 day period (£5 per hour) and had to provide our own nappies and food. A quick calculation on the income caring for 8 kids; is what we believe won over common sense of her own capability.
She also repeatedly made comments such as “she is 2 years old and she is the same size as him” (meaning our son). When I heard this for the 3rd time I said to her “Our son wears clothes appropriate to his age, not bigger sizes so he must be the healthy size.” following her profession and years of experience these conversations should never have taken place, comments such as these are highly unprofessional.
One day when we picked him up we noticed that he had a ‘hair tourniquet’ around his finger (hair had got tightly wrapped round his finger), on another occasion we found bruising on his elbows and knees, when questioned it was explained that he was crawling on his elbows. Have you ever seen a baby crawling on their elbows? Crawling which would cause bruises? We certainly hadn’t. We took pictures of both issues and did not question further as we were worried that something else could happen to our wee one but just knew that we had to find a new place where staff were capable of taking care of kids younger than 1. We soon found a new place, coincidently on the last day our son was there (which she was not aware of at the time) she wrote in his diary “he doesn’t seem to be settling at all, we maybe get 20 min max of him not crying! I will give it one more week to see if it improves, if not I’m afraid with having other children that need our care we can’t give him one to one all the time, we can’t even put him down for a few mins when he starts to cry!!! Sorry! Even with two of us it’s very hard!” She did not have the courage to say any of this to our faces; we found out when reading his diary at home. Luckily we had already made the decision and had found a new place for him.
Our son now goes to a nursery where the ratio is 1 adult for 3 kids maximum; the kids are divided into the groups based on their own capability if they are able to walk etc. Nappies are provided and also food which is homemade in the nursery. The fee is based on one day (no matter how long the kids stays there) and gives the parents flexibility to drop/pick up the kid from 07.30 to 18.00. We are very happy and so is our son! So if your child is less than one year old or cannot walk yet we would not recommend this childminder at all and even if the child is older we would advise anyone to properly observe the environment where the kids are kept all day.

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by Parent about Tina Str on 24/11/2016

Response by Tina Str on 05/06/2017:

Firstly this child I had for four days ONLY in July as it was on a temporary basis as there childminder was sick, and it took them 5 months to write a review ? I have only seen this now as I wasn't a gold member for the last six months so couldn't see this so only responding now.
As a childminder you are allowed six children on your own, I had 8 and there is two of us! My area that I care for little ones is NOT a hall it's a bright child friendly environment, ( see pictures ) yes it's got wooden floors but for hygiene reasons. I wouldn't have it any other way,
I'm not going to lie to a parent and "sugar "it up if your child is not settling in, crying all the time wanting picked up then yes I'm going to tell you, he just didn't settle but it usually takes a few weeks to anyways. As much as I would like to give one to one care ( look for a nanny ) I have other children in my care that need attention too. Anyone will know it's not easy looking after little ones especially if there that needy.
Ive had many family's over the years some for 6 -7 years with brothers and sisters following behind, surely that's a testament to my care and what I provide. Like everything in life sometimes you just clash with folk and parents are no different sometimes it's the parent you just don't seem to get on with not the child and no matter what you do, or provide it's not going to be good enough for them. Yes I charge £5 per hr I do not provide nappys, why should I ? It's different in a nursery when they have 40 children they can afford to provide all of the above I can't justify the expense. I provide snacks morning and evening, and I feel I'm very generous ( ask any of my parents or children ) this is MY HOME at the end of the day please keep this in mind, I'm not a nursery.
Like trip adviser you get bad reviews and people see this but never look at the bigger picture and all the happy children and parents I have and did have over the 18 years. If your child is " needy" then look for a nanny who can give one to one,or if you want a home environment where there will be different age groups that's good for the child ( just like it would be in your home ) then 18 years of happy children and parents is a testimony to what I do.
I would love any one to do this job for one day , in there HOME!!!! To see how hard, messy, exhausting but how enjoyable and fun it is.